Brand New Wings
by Simple Paradox
Summary: While Megan experiences a new change in her life an evil Angel lets loose a dark force into the world again and Megan has to team up with three powerful kids to go on an adventure to stop it. Sequel to Balance.
1. Regenerate Me

A/N: Okay, so here is the first chapter of the third story of my Chosen One Series (yes, I'm calling it that now). If you are just starting to read this then I suggest you go read my other to stories first so you know what's going on. My other two stories are "Signs of God" (the first one) and "Balance" (the second one). You can find both of those on my profile. But if you don't want to read the other two first then that's fine, I'm not forcing you to do anything. But anyway I hope you guys enjoy this fic, I've been waiting to write this for a while!

**Warning: Cursing, possible spoilers for seasons six and seven of Supernatural, and Doctor Who references**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of Supernatural**

Chapter 1

**Regenerate Me**

Right now, at this very moment, a few hunters, some Angels, and a Skin Walker stand over Megan Summers, the Chosen one, or at least they assumed that it was still her. But we'll get back to that later.

At the same time another very powerful girl is fighting for her life against a pack of Demons. She does not know of the events that will transpire in just a few weeks. None of them do.

Miles away from Megan and the girl sits a boy on a hill, looking up longingly at the clouds, his cane resting beside him. Soon he will be done waiting.

And then there is a boy sitting in his room, watching them all and waiting for the time to come where they will all meet.

This is the start of their new journey.

-BNW-

Megan woke with a start, taking a big gasp of air as she regained consciousness, her eyes opening. She sat up against a pillow and looked around. She was back at the safe house. She looked to see who was there.

Sam and Dean were there, looking at her somewhat wide-eyed. Castiel stood in front of the blue couch she was on, he looked puzzled. Gabriel was inspecting a gold coin that he had in his hands, as if avoiding something. Jinx and Balthazar were holding hands over by the breakfast bar. And, to Megan's surprise, Luna was there as well, the same stoic look on her face.

Megan thought back to what she last remembered. They were in Libra's palace and Exarp…Oh God, Exarp. Dead. Dead dead dead. No, she couldn't think about it. Think about what happened after… She killed Libra with the Tablets then…she got stabbed by Oro. Megan quickly looked down at her stomach. She was fine, no gaping hole anymore. Why was that? Oh yeah, the Tablets. They fixed her. Everything was okay. Though not really. Oro had the rings (shit, she should tell Gabe that), and Exarp was dead. There was nothing okay about this situation at all.

"How long have I been out?" Megan asked. Whoa, what was up with her voice? It sounded a little higher pitched than usual.

"Uh, a few hours," Dean said, avoiding eye contact.

"What's wrong?" she asked. Something didn't seem right.

Everyone looked at each other, as if they weren't sure what to say.

"Guys, what's wrong?" she asked again.

"Um, uh, the Tablets, they," Dean started, having trouble getting the words out. "When they were fixing you something happened, it uh."

"Just look in the mirror," Sam said for his brother.

Megan gave them a weird look. What? "Why?" she asked.

"Just do it," Gabriel said, still looking at the coin.

"Fine," she said a little angrily. She didn't have time to deal with this crap, why couldn't they just tell her?

Megan slid herself off the couch and walked over to the small mirror that hung up on the wall near the kitchen. She nearly fainted at what she saw. In the mirror staring back at her was a girl with red hair and cat like green eyes. Her red hair was somewhat long, going a little past her shoulders, and she was a little taller too. Maybe by an inch or so. A few freckles dotted her pale face. The girl was Megan.

Megan was at a loss for words. What-what the fuck? "What is this, some kind of joke?" Megan asked the group but there looks answered for them. This wasn't a joke. This was real. The Tablets changed her completely.

"Holy shit," she said and ran a hand through her new red hair, which was somewhat curly. "So, what, I regenerated or something?"

"Regenawhat?" Dean looked at her curiously.

Megan let out a sigh at everyone's lack of love for great television. "In Doctor Who whenever the Doctor is about to die he regenerates. It's a way to cheat death. He turns into a brand new person, his looks completely different and his personality changes a bit, but he's still the Doctor," she explained.

"I think you just sum up exactly what just happened to you," Jinx said.

"The Skin Walker is correct," Luna spoke up.

"Okay, but can you change me back?" Megan asked, hoping so much that the answer would be yes.

"No," Luna said. Fuck.

"We tried," Gabriel piped from next to the TV where he stood. "But it seems that you're gonna be stuck like that forever."

Megan took a deep breath. No, this can't be happening, she thought. She wanted to go back to who she was before. She wasn't the Doctor; she couldn't just change her whole appearance and live with it!

"No, there has to be a way, there has to," Megan said.

"This has never happened before," Luna said. "There is no way to know that you can ever be changed back. The Tablets are very strong so what they did is most likely permanent. I'm sorry."

"I can't just live with a whole new body! I'M GINGER!" she yelled.

"The Fire Tablet must've been the source of that outcome," Luna said. God, that Angel was starting to get on Megan's nerves.

"Shut up, okay? If it wasn't for your Angel bro I wouldn't be in this situation! Why did you even help us?" Megan yelled. Maybe that was a little too much, to get back mad at the Angel, but she couldn't help it. She was just really fucking angry.

"If you don't stand up for something then you'll fall for everything," Luna quoted.

"That's the quote from our cave wall," Sam pointed out. "It was meant for you."

Luna nodded then turned back to Megan. "Listen, I'm sorry about all of this and I'm sorry about Oro. I really didn't mean for any of this to happen."

Megan was silent for a few moments before realizing that she was being an ass towards the Angel. Luna was right. It wasn't her fault. "Sorry," Megan apologized.

"It's fine," she said.

Megan decided that she needed to sit down. This was becoming a little too much. She felt like a ticking time bomb, ready to explode the next time someone said something she didn't like. Why was that? She had never felt like that before, even if something bad had happened to her. Megan shook off the thought and sat back down on the blue sofa.

"You're feeling different, aren't you?" Luna asked.

Megan raised an eyebrow at the Angel. "What do you mean by that?" she asked.

"Well, your aspect element has changed, so I'm guessing that your personality has changed a little as well," Luna said.

"Aspect what?" Megan asked, looking at her curiously.

"Aspect element. Every human has an element that they are most compatible with, one that sort of…defines them in a way. Yours was Air, which was why you were able to wield the Air Tablet so easily. Just like how Dean's is Earth which was how he could wield the Earth Tablet as well. But yours is now Fire," Luna explained.

"Okay, this is becoming a little too _Avatar_ for me," Megan said and rubbed her new green eyes.

"There aren't any blue people," Balthazar said, confused.

"Different Avatar," Megan said.

"Back to the point." Luna shifted a look at her Angel brother and then looked back at Megan. "You feel different?"

"I guess?" Megan wasn't sure what to say. She looked completely different, of course she felt different! But if Luna meant personality wise then…Megan wasn't too sure about that. The only thing she noticed was how freaking angry she was before. Air Megan would probably be more upset about everything, now angry.

"Listen, I know it good to talk about this stuff but Oro has the rings. We need to focus on that," Sam said as he stood up from his seat on the chair.

Ugh, Oro had the rings. Why did everything go so freaking wrong in those last five minutes at the palace? They had won, the trophy was within reach, but then Oro just snatched it out their hands and left with the prize.

"Unfortunately, I don't know what he plans on doing with them," Luna said.

"Gabe, why are you still here?" Dean asked the Archangel. Gabriel couldn't be around Megan when she didn't have the Horsemen rings because of their two Graces. A long time ago Gabe gave part of his Grace to Megan so she could be the Chosen one and stuff. But that also meant that Megan's borrowed Grace would always want to go back to Gabriel and if that happened then she would die. It's happened before, so she should know.

"Hey, I'll be fine staying here for a few more minutes," Gabriel said. "Don't worry."

"I'll go investigate," Castiel said, speaking for the first time since Megan woke up. "I suggest you rest," he said to Megan.

"I don't want to rest," she said and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Listen, Megan-," Dean said but Megan cut him off.

"Don't call me that." Wait, what did she just say?

"Don't call you what?" he asked.

"I, uh, never mind. Fine, I'll go rest. Don't do anything fun without me," she said and got up to go upstairs.

"Wait," Castiel said then handed something to her. It was the crystal that held Exarp's Grace. It must've fallen off when Oro broke her necklace when he ripped the rings off it. Megan held it tight in her hands, nodded, and then disappeared to her room.

Megan sighed and threw the crystal onto her bed. She then turned to the mirror on the wall and looked at herself again. She had no idea how long she stood there, just looking at her new self, but she suspected for a long time. How could she live like this? With a whole new body? She had lived with her face and her height and her blonde hair and her blue eyes and her Air personality for sixteen years and now she had to just forget about it and be the Megan with a new face and new height and red hair and green eyes and a Fire personality? And just to add to the pile of shit that was her life Oro had the Horsemen rings and Exarp was dead. Megan felt sick to her stomach.

"Happy Birthday to me," she said then collapsed onto her bed, falling asleep within seconds.


	2. What They Call Fire

Chapter 2

**What They Call Fire**

The rest of the week was torture. All Megan did was lay on her bed. It's not like she needed to leave her room. She could poof up food when she was hungry; she had internet, and a TV. Really that's all she need in life. Megan wondered if she could just live out her life in her room, avoiding her duties as Protector of the Earth.

During that week Megan re-watched all the episodes of Doctor Who, suddenly understanding the Doctor more given her situation. She knew what it was like to have to save the world every other day and how it was like to change into a whole new person just to escape death. At times Megan thought it would have been better if she had died back at the palace. But she would quickly shake off the thought, wishing never to have thought that in the first place. But what if…

The gang let her stay up in her room and never called her down to go on a hunt or anything. She knew that she was mourning, both Exarp and her old body, and that they needed to leave her alone. Well, until the end of that week.

They came up to her room and told her that it's been long enough and that she needed to come out. That eventually she would have to do her job. It took a while but Megan finally agreed.

Turned out Castiel didn't have that great of a week either. Even with Gabriel, Luna, and Balthazar's help they couldn't find Oro. It scared Megan to think what he had possibly done with the Horsemen's rings.

So it was a fairly uneventful week. Except for something strange. Every night Megan would have the same weird dream. In the dream she saw fire and red and the reoccurring memory of the time she met Emma at the bank when they were trapped in the vault by Rylie, the Demon. She had no idea what it meant but she hoped she would find out soon.

The morning after everyone told her to actually do things, Megan went down stairs and, having nothing better to do, decided to experiment. She sat down at the breakfast bar and snapped her fingers, making a bunch of plates full of various foods appear in front of her. Then she dug in.

Dean walked down a few minutes later, rubbing sleep from his eyes, and gave her a look as he saw all the food she had in front of her. "Hungry?" he asked.

Megan swallowed a mouthful of pineapple before saying, "No, I'm just checking to see what food I like now. I used to hate pineapple but now it's awesome. My taste buds must've changed."

Dean nodded then grinned when he saw a plate of steaming hot apple pie. He quickly grabbed a slice and started eating it. God, he looked like that was the best pie in the whole God damn world.

"You have an addiction," Megan said.

"Not an addiction. An _obsession,_" he clarified.

"Same thing."

-BNW-

_A few hours earlier…_

It had taken Oro a week to figure out what he was going to do with the Horsemen rings. Taking the rings from Megan was kind of a spur of the moment thing so he had no plan for the future. Until now.

The Angel of Fire stood in the blazing hot desert, the just as hot sand sliding under his feet as he walked and the vultures circled overhead. Yes, this would be the perfect spot.

Oro stopped walking and grasped the rings tight in his hands. He was doing it. He was making this happen.

He decided that he couldn't wait any longer. He threw the rings onto the golden sand of the desert and muttered the ancient words in a language long forgotten. Just a few more seconds now…

The wind started to pick up, moving the sand in waves, creating a hot ocean that only seemed fit for the swimmers of Hell itself. Storm clouds rose overhead eerily and a quick crack of lightning struck down not too far away from him.

The sand in front him started to sink into the ground like quick sand and soon a hole appeared in front of him. It was a twisted abyss of black and purple and red, spiraling towards _the_ cage.

Lightning struck again. Thunder crackled. The wind blew. The vultures left. The hole in front of him opened wider.

"Hello." Oro turned around, not the least bit scared (okay, maybe a little, but he would never admit. He would never get a chance to admit it), as he stared Lucifer in the eye. "That was very kind of you to let me out of my cage."

In one swift movement the Devil lodged his hand inside the Angel's stomach and watched his eyes light up. The Angel of Fire fell to the ground and soon the vultures returned. Lucifer grinned.

"I've got work to do."

-BNW-

_Back in the present…_

Megan burped as she lay down on the now green couch (she felt the need to change something but wasn't exactly sure why. Enough had changed already). She had eaten _a lot_ and made a list to remind herself what foods that she liked now and ones that she now didn't like.

Megan was feeling, at the short moment, content. Or at least it was some kind of content. She still felt horrible, anger rippling under her skin, but over the week past she had begun to ignore it. She discovered that she had to clear her mind for a bit to reach anything close to happiness. Wait, was she becoming the Hulk? God dammit.

"This is not good." Megan sat up on the couch to see that Castiel had returned, his black hair somewhat ruffled and his blue eyes showing… was it fear?

"What's not good?" Dean asked from the love seat where he was eating his fourth of fifth helping of pie.

"I found out what Oro has done with the rings," Castiel said, somewhat quickly in a nervous panic. Megan had never seen him like that before. "Is everyone here?" he asked.

"TEAM MEETING IN THE LIVING ROOM!" Megan yelled. In a matter of moments everyone had come to the living room except for Gabriel and Luna. Luna had been hard at work finding new places to hide the Tablets and Gabe was, well, she had no idea where Gabe was.

"What's up?" Sam asked.

"Bad news," Megan said.

"Oro," Cas said then paused, either for dramatic effect or because he was afraid of how everyone would react, "Has freed Lucifer."

Everyone was silent after hearing that. Megan was screaming inside her head, wishing that why, oh God why the fuck would you do that Oro, you are a stupid fuck and I should've killed you when I had the chance.

"Cas, please tell you're kidding," Dean said and Megan could tell by the look in his eyes that he was thinking the same thing that she was.

"No, I am not 'kidding'," he put air quotes around the word. "Lucifer roams the Earth again."

"Come fucking on!" Megan cried. "We spent so freaking long trying to stop Raphael from opening the cage again and Oro does it in a week? This is so fucking stupid!"

"I'm gonna have to agree with Megan on this one," Sam said and Megan could hear the quietness of fear in his voice. And again she felt that hatred of being called by her name. Why was that?

"So, what's the plan?" Jinx asked. Everyone stayed silent. "Come on guys, we always have a plan."

No, there was no plan. They've had plans for this but they were already used, crumpled up blue prints that were now living their life in a waste basket, content that that they worked or sad that they failed. There was no fail safe plan. There was no plan B. All that was left was to just freak the fuck out and hope that Lucifer would go back into his cage after being asked nicely.

"Lucifer obviously has the rings now," Castiel said, steering away from Jinx's question. "The only thing that I found at the spot where the cage was opened was Oro's body."

"Oro's dead?" Megan asked. "At least one good thing came out of this."

"I think I would rather have a pissy Angel than a fallen one," Balthazar said, holding onto Jinx's hand tight as if Lucifer would pop up out of nowhere and steal her away. And that was an actual possibility.

"I say were wait out until Lucifer starts popping up on the radar. Then we'll figure out what we'll do," Castiel said.

Megan didn't like this, not one bit. Seeing only a _projection_ of Lucifer scared her shitless but now to have the actual thing? No, this was too much. She felt sick again; ready to puke up all the things she ate during her food test. Not good, not good, not good.

But instead of getting a stomach ache she got something else; a splitting headache. Megan winced and closed her eyes as pain started to rise to her head and she quickly held her head in her hands as if it would help.

"What's going on?" Dean asked as he and the others bounded over to her to make sure that she was okay. Megan shook her head no. She was not okay.

She was seeing something. It was her dream that she had every night, the one with the fire and the red and little Emma. This time it all felt so real. Like she could feel the wave of heat from the fire and feel the red around her and hear the sound of Emma's little laugh as she waved good bye. In a split second it was all over. That's when Megan finally understood her dream. What it finally meant.

"What was that, Megan?" Sam asked.

"Don't call me that," she said as she fixed her new red hair.

"You keep saying that, what do you want us to call you?" Dean asked.

"Well, I finally know now," Megan said. The Dream had told her exactly that. The Dream had renamed her.

"Call me Emma. Emma Crimson."


	3. Some Assembly Required

A/N: Okay, just so people don't get confused, Megan is now going by Emma which means that instead of "Megan said, Megan smiled" etc, it will be "Emma said, Emma smiled".

Also I would like to thank Arlena4815162342 for letting me use her wonderful character Lynn Logan :-)

Chapter 3

**Some Assembly Required**

They all stared at her blankly, as if she just proclaimed that aliens were landing on Earth and they have to give them all they apple pie they had. "Wait, what?" Dean said.

"I said to call me Emma Crimson. You have ears, use them," Emma said and swung her legs around so that she was sitting upright on the couch.

"So, what, you're just gonna change your name just like that? What did you see in that weird headache thing?" Sam asked.

"I've been having the same dream for a week and now that it voluntarily presented itself I assume that some force wants me to change my name to that," Emma explained. "I like it."

"New name, new body; that's like changing your Tumblr icon and URL at the same time," Jinx said, fixing her brown hair.

"I know but, guys, I just really feel like this is something I gotta do." Emma stood up and walked away from the group to get some a little space to herself. It was true though, she really felt like she had to change her name. Every time someone referred to her as Megan it just felt…wrong. Like it was a bad nickname trying to stick. But this name, Emma Crimson, felt perfect. Like she had always lived with that name. "And on the plus side it might hide me for a bit. Demons and Angels and Lucifer might not know about my new name and new body."

They were all silent for a few moments before Castiel said, "I think it's a good idea."

"I'm still not sure," Dean said.

"Come on, Dean, it's not like I'm deciding to become a stripper. I'm just changing my name," Emma said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Okay, okay, fine," Dean said and everyone else agreed.

"This has been a nice little intermission but I think it's time we get back to the Lucifer problem," Balthazar spoke up and Emma felt like collapsing again. She didn't want to think about it for one second.

So they all sat down and started talking. Emma didn't talk too much; she tried not to take part in the discussion, only nodded yes or no at things. She wanted to distance herself, zone out, but it was hard to do when half the time you were asked to come up with ideas.

But they settled on just laying low for the time being. They would create a sort of underground bunker ("It's a basement," Emma said. "No, it's a bunker, it sounds cooler," Dean exclaimed. "It's a basement") to keep the weapons they had and to have a safe place to hide just in case there was a Lucifer emergency.

Another week past. Emma helped Castiel and Balthazar create the "bunker" while Dean, Sam, and Jinx stocked it full of weapons and devils traps and Angel proof sigils and etc. By the end of the week Emma was exhausted and ended up taking a nap on the green sofa in the living room.

"Hey, Emma." Emma groaned and slowly woke up from her nap (which wasn't really a nap, she was just laying down with her eyes closed) to see Sam looking down at her.

"Uh, hey. What's up?" she asked, sitting upright. Sam didn't say anything; he just sat down next to her on the couch and took something out of his jacket pocket. It was a package wrapped in wrapping paper with balloons on it.

"I know it's two weeks late but we wanted to get your present the old fashioned way by ordering it online instead of using Angel Air and it came late and then there was Lucifer to worry about but, yeah, Happy Birthday," Sam said with a small smile and handed it to her. "It's from everyone. We know how much you like that Homestuck thing so…"

Emma smiled and tore into the gift. Her smile widened as she saw what it was. "A Hero of Light hoddie _and_ a Karkat shirt? Thank you guys so freaking much!" Emma said and moved over to give Sam the biggest hug ever.

Sam laughed a little before saying, "You're welcome. Though I still have no idea what any of that actually is."

"Most people don't," Emma said with a shrug as she stopped hugging Sam. "Tell everyone else I say thanks as well."

"Yeah, I will," Sam said but he looked like he still had more to say. "Listen, I know how you're feeling about Lucifer and everything."

Emma's smile quickly disappeared. "Oh," was all she was able to say.

"I don't think you know this but Dean and I were, uh, supposed to be the vessels for Michael and Lucifer. Dean was Michael's and I was Lucifer's. And towards the end of the apocalypse, as part of a plan, I said yes to Lucifer and he used me as a meat suit for a while. But I was able to get rid of him after some…well, you get the point." Emma now felt horrible. She had only been tortured by Lucifer for a week and that wasn't even the _real_ him. Sam actually had Lucifer using him as a human puppet and had to do God knows what to get rid of him. That was way worse than what she had gone through.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know," Emma said.

"It's okay. It's in the past. But if you ever need anyone to talk to don't be afraid to ask me," he said then stood up as Dean entered the living room.

"Cas says he has some idea," Dean said as he took a swig of his beer. "Told me to gather everyone in the living room."

Just at that moment Jinx and Balthazar came into the living room. "Well, that saves me some time," Dean said happily.

"I have some people I want you to meet." Emma stood up from the couch and looked over as Castiel appeared in room.

"Who?" Sam asked.

"You'll see. I thought it would be a good idea to get some powerful people on our side if we are going to be fighting Lucifer yet again. Sort of like a team," Castiel explained.

"Okay, Nick Fury," Emma started. "Let's assemble these Avengers."

"They should be coming right about now-," Castiel was cut off as a flash of purple lighting struck next to him. Appearing after the lightning struck was a boy probably about the same age or a year older than Emma. He was a few inches taller than her with a mop of black hair and wore thick black rimmed glasses over his grey eyes. He was wearing black skinny jeans and a purple shirt with a black jacket over it. Man, this kid sure liked purple. And what the hell was with the lightning?

"Holy shit, what?" Jinx yelled, just as surprised as everyone else.

"That wasn't the kind of greeting I was expecting," the boy said as he looked over at Castiel.

"This is Murdock Leroy," Castiel introduced. "He is the heir of Merlin."

"Wait, Merlin was a real dude?" Emma asked as she stepped away from the couch and towards the newcomer.

"Yes," Castiel confirmed.

"So, that means this kid is a _wizard_?" Dean asked as he pointed surprisingly at Murdock.

"Hey, we prefer the term warlock," Murdock said, crossing his arms.

"Sure, whatever Harry Potter," Dean said.

Emma decided to be the only nice one in the house by introducing herself. "Uh, hi, I'm Emma Crimson, welcome to The Avengers," she said with a smile while extending her hand for a shake. Murdock shook it, smiling back.

"Hello Emma, nice name by the way," he said. That's when Emma realized that was the first time she introduce herself with her new name. This was a totally new person who had no idea that she used to be Megan a week ago. Wow, so this is what starting over feels like.

"Thanks." Emma jumped a little when there was a knock at the door. Lucifer on the planet was making her a little nervous. That and because no one ever used the door, let alone _knocked_ on the door.

"That should be Drew," Castiel said and opened the door to reveal another boy that looked about Emma's age. He was her height with brown hair that kind of looked like Rylie's and blue eyes that used to look like Emma's old blue eyes. He was wearing a long-sleeved grey shirt and jeans and was holding a cane in his right hand. A cane?

"This is Drew Copperfield," Castiel introduced as he led Drew inside the house, closing the door behind him. "He's a Nephilim."

"What's a Nephilim?" Emma asked.

"A Nephilim is a child of an Angel and a human," Balthazar explained. "There aren't many in the world."

"Any relation to David Copperfield?" Dean asked jokingly.

Drew shook his head. Emma could tell that he was a little shy. "Uh, no," he said in a quiet voice. He was almost the exact opposite of Murdock.

Emma really wanted to ask Drew who his Angel parent was but she thought that would be a little too rude and personal so she decided to save the question for a later time and introduce herself instead. "It's nice to meet you," she said after shaking his hand. He gave her a small nod in return.

"And I'm Murdock, heir of Slytherin," Murdock said. Drew looked like a confused puppy as he stared up at the warlock.

"He means the heir of Merlin," Emma clarified. Drew only looked a little less confused but shook Murdock's hand nonetheless. Emma then introduced both Drew and Murdock to the rest of the gang, although Murdock seemed to know a lot about the famous Winchester brothers.

"How many other people are coming, Cas?" Emma asked.

"One more person," the Angel said. "She should be here any minute." And speak of the Devil (God, why did she use that phrase) there she was. She appeared, yes, appeared like Cas appeared, next to Drew. She was about an inch or two taller than Emma and looked about her age. She had long brownish black hair and really shiny green eyes. Like, _really_ shiny. She had a small look of surprise on her face as she stared at not her, but at the Winchesters.

"_Lynn?_" Both the brothers said.

"Sam? Dean?" she said then turned to Castiel. "You didn't tell me that they'd be here," she said but it wasn't like she was angry about it, just confused.

"Sorry, that didn't seem important at the time. What is important is that your father is here again," Castiel said to the girl, Lynn.

Wait, did he just say father? Was Lynn's father Lucifer? What?

Lynn's eyes went downcast as Castiel said that and she nodded. It didn't seem like she was too thrilled about Lucifer being back either, which meant that she wasn't evil. That's good.

"So, where's this Emma girl?" she asked, looking around the room.

"That would be me," Emma said and extended her hand. "Emma Crimson, Chosen One extraordinaire." Lynn smiled a little and shook her hand.

"I'm Lynn Logan. I'm here to help you and that's all you need to know," she introduced. Well, this girl certainly was mysterious. Emma decided not to question it.

"I take it you three know each other?" Murdock asked, looking from Lynn to Sam to Dean.

"Yeah, we go way back," Dean said. Emma wondered why she had never heard of Lynn before.

Murdock and Drew then introduced themselves along with Balthazar saying hello to Lynn again (apparently they knew each other too. Where was this loop and how did Emma not get in it?) and Jinx offered a friendly greeting.

"So, what's the plan here Mr. Wings?" Murdock asked Castiel.

"The plan is to prepare for Lucifer. You four are very powerful and you becoming a team will help us to get him back in the cage. Right now we just need to lie low some more so we can think of an attack plan," Castiel explained and the four nodded.

"But what if Lucifer, like, sets the world on fire or something in like a minute? What if we can't protect the Earth?" Murdock asked.

"Well, you can be damn sure we'll avenge it," Emma said and smiled, having a feeling that these three were going to make good friends. Or rip each other's throats out.

A/N: So now you have met the three other kids that will be helping Emma with the Lucifer problem! Yay! I had been waiting forever to write them and it feels so good to finally get their characters to interact. By the way, I have been making some Homestuck references lately (because I've become obsessed with it) so I thought I would tell you what it actually is. It's a webcomic that follows the adventures of these four kids (and some trolls who help them out, sort of) as they play a game that pretty much destroys the world. It's really good and I suggest you check it out! Just type "Homestuck" into Google and click on the first link.

Haha, sorry for advertising again, like with Sherlock XD


	4. Welcome to the Band

Chapter 4

**Welcome to the Band**

That night everyone decided to have a nice, normal, sit down dinner to start to get to know the three new powerful kids. Unfortunately Emma was tasked with the job of making dinner. Since she couldn't cook for her life she decided to poof up something everyone would like. So she took dinner orders. French fries for Lynn, lasagna for Drew, clam chowder for Murdock, and salmon for herself. And of course apple pie for Dean.

Now they just needed somewhere to eat. The safe house didn't have a dining room, everyone ate where they wanted and when they wanted, and so Emma decided to extend the house a bit to add one. With a snap of her fingers she made a nice dining room with one of those long mahogany tables with the nice plates and silverware. She was proud of her handiwork.

The invitation to come to dinner was extended to everyone, except for Gabe because no one really knew where he went, but not everyone came. The only people to step foot into the dining room were Emma, Drew, Murdock, Lynn, Sam, and Dean. Looked like the Angels and Skin Walker were a no show.

Everyone sat down in a somewhat awkward silence before digging into the food on their plates. Emma had to admit, she was starving, and she was really happy that her taste buds still loved salmon. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying their food as well, even Sam who made her poof up some weird salad thing for him. After a few minutes of nothing but chewing, Emma thought it would be a good time to get to know everyone.

"So, you guys never really told me how you know Lynn. And how Cas and Balthazar know her too," Emma said, swallowing her bite of fish.

"Yeah, long story short we all helped each other save the world. Our Dad had known about Lynn and when we found her we figured it would be good to have each other as partners in crime," Sam explained.

"That is a _very_ condensed version of our story," Lynn said and munched on a fry.

"Oh! I call going next!" Murdock said, his hand in the air.

"Going next for what?" Emma asked.

Murdock finished his bite of clam chowder before speaking again. "For telling stuff to get to know each other. That is what we're doing, right?"

Emma nodded and shrugged. "Okay, the stage is yours."

"As you all know I'm the heir of Merlin. My favorite color is purple, I think that they should never have canceled Firefly, and I've lived in a mansion alone for almost my entire life without being able to leave," Murdock said in one quick breath.

"Wait, what?" Lynn asked.

"I think it was a bad decision for them to cancel Firefly, it was such a great show-,"

"No, the part about you living alone in a mansion," Lynn clarified.

"Oh yeah, that," Murdock said. "Well the cult of Merlin has this really weird rule that once an heir of Merlin has a kid they have to take care of them until they can live on their own. Then they dump you in this mansion for you to live in until you're eighteen because you're so freaking powerful they don't want you to destroy everything. There's this weird force field around the mansion that won't let you leave. But once you turn eighteen then you get to leave and join the cult for secret mission or something." It was amazing how he just blurted everything out about him without a second thought. You would think for someone as powerful as him he wouldn't think of revealing everything about the secret cult of Merlin but maybe that's what happens to you when you live alone for most of your life. You don't have anyone to tell your stories to.

"How old are you now?" Drew asked.

"Seventeen."

"Then how did you get out?" Emma asked.

"The force field isn't Angel proof," Murdock said with a grin and a wink.

"You know, usually I hate witches and warlock's, but you seem alright," Dean said.

"Thank you Mister Winchester," Murdock smiled.

"Okay, Drew, your turn," Lynn said, pointing a fry at the Nephilim.

"Um, well, I lived in New York my whole life and found out about a year ago that I was an Angel kid. I live with my Mom and she told me and I guess I'm okay with it," Drew said quietly, as if he didn't really feel like talking about it. Emma nodded then took the spotlight away from him.

"I guess it's my turn-," she started.

"Don't bother, we all know about you Miss Chosen One," Lynn said, eating the last of her fries.

Emma wasn't sure whether that was an insult or a compliment so she decided to say silent. The rest of them also stayed silent until they were all done eating.

"So…what now?" Murdock asked, staring over at Emma.

"Since Cas isn't here that means we can't start planning so I guess we could watch TV or something," Emma said and stood up to direct everyone back to the living room.

"I call choosing what we watch," Murdock said as he plopped himself on the couch like he was right at home.

"You call things too much," Lynn pointed out and sat down next to him.

"I'm going to get some air," Drew said and left outside the front door. Emma raised an eyebrow, wondering if there was something wrong with Drew. Maybe he was just shy. Or maybe he was just feeling a little out of place. Maybe Emma should talk to him.

And that's what she did. She instructed Murdock and Lynn to play well with each other then left, putting on some flip flops before leaving out the door.

As Emma closed the door behind her she saw Drew sitting on the porch steps and suddenly it felt like the time when her and Exarp talked and almost kissed. Emma shook her head. This wasn't going to be like that. And she definitely didn't have any feelings for Drew. Emma had decided to give up on love altogether. She had bigger things to worry about.

"Hey," she said as she sat down next to Drew on the steps.

"Hey," he said back, barley audible over the sounds of the cricket's chirping.

They sat in silence for a few moments before Emma asked, "You alright?"

"I'm fine. Just tired," he said, fiddling with his cane.

"Do you mind if I asked why you have a cane?" Emma asked, trying to make small talk.

Drew shook his head then pulled up the pant leg of his jeans to reveal a badly burnt leg. The skin was deformed and mutated from fire and was somewhat discolored. It looked as if it had burned deep, almost to the bone.

"Oh my God," was all Emma was able to get out.

"Yeah, I know," Drew said and pulled his pant leg back down. "A Demon gave that to me. Hit me with a holy fire Molotov. It happened just before my Mom told me about my Dad. It was kind of the reason actually."

Emma nodded though she was happy that Drew seemed to be coming out of his shell a bit.

"I'm sorry," she said and almost moved to show Drew her own scar until she realized that she didn't have it anymore. Her regeneration had repaired all scars on her skin. The one she wanted to show him was the one that was on her shoulder from when she got shot.

"It's okay. It's not your fault," he said, looking down at fireflies hovering above the grass.

"I'm sorry if I'm prodding, I just want to get to know you more since we'll be working together, but who's your Dad?" Emma asked.

"An Angel."

"No shit," Emma laughed.

"Okay. My Mom said that his name was Brap. He was the Angel of Metal," Drew said.

Emma's eyes widened. _Brap?_ That was Exarp's friend! He was the one who died after he joined The Powers. Holy. Crap.

She decided not to say anything about knowing Drew's father. She thought it would just make things too complicated. Instead she focused on one thought. Did he know that his father was dead?

"Why are you using past tense?" Emma asked, hoping to erg an answer along.

"Castiel told me that he died a while ago," Drew said, his eyes somber.

"I'm sorry," Emma said again. "I know what it's like to lose someone because of who you are. It hurts but you have to keep marching on."

Drew nodded then took his wallet out of his pocket. He flipped it open to reveal a picture of a beautiful girl with long, curly blonde hair and big brown eyes wearing a white summer dress.

"That's my girlfriend, Delilah," he said, pointing at the picture.

"She's very pretty," Emma said.

"She's the greatest. I miss her so much." Drew then closed his wallet with a snap. "You think I'll be able to see her again?"

Emma stared into Drew's clear blue eyes, much like his fathers from Exarp's description, and said, "I'll make sure of it."

"Promise?" He almost looked like he was about to cry.

"Promise."


	5. Hey Kid, Take the Stage and Deliver

Chapter 5

**Hey Kid, Take the Stage and Deliver**

"I can't believe this," Gabriel said as he stood behind a bush near the safe house while he was ease dropping on Drew and Emma's conversation. After they went back inside Gabe was left shocked.

"I'm sorry that I never told you." The Archangel turned around to see his best Angel ghost friend, Brap, who Gabriel just found out was a father.

"You have a freaking kid!" Above everything Gabriel would have never thought that would happen. "After all those times I told you to get laid-,"

"Gabriel, I didn't sleep with any human. Like I've said before, I have a line, a line which you repeatedly cross every day," Brap said calmly, he blue eyes that he shared with his son shinning in the moon light.

Gabriel narrowed his eyes on him. "What do you mean you didn't sleep with anyone?"

Brap let out a sigh, either of annoyance or tiredness, Gabe wasn't sure. "I blessed a woman with Drew," he explained.

"Oh yeah, that blessed stuff. That's no fun," Gabriel said and crossed his arms. "But why? I never really pinned you as a kid person."

"I don't know," Brap ran a hand through his brown hair. "I guess I thought if I was going to die eventually, I would like to leave something great on Earth. Not just my imprint, not just stories of my adventures, something that was the reason for Earth in the first place. A human, something that the Earth spins round for every day."

"But he's not human," Gabriel pointed out.

"Well, close enough," Brap said with a laugh.

"But why didn't you tell me?" Gabriel asked.

"Seriously? Don't you remember what happened millennia ago? That little war of yours where you _killed_ Nephilim?" Brap raised an eyebrow at the Archangel.

"Those were different times, times I'm not proud of," Gabriel said. It was true, he wasn't proud of it. He had killed them just because he was told too, because he was told that they were abominations that plagued the Earth. That just added to the list of why he left Heaven in the first place.

"So, how are you dealing with all this?"

"Well, okay I guess, I mean he seems like a nice kid-,"

"I meant how are you dealing with your brother being back?"

Gabriel frowned and stuffed his hands in his pockets. That was right, 'ol Luci was back again. "Fine," he lied.

"Yeah, you're really not fine," Brap said, seeing behind his mask as usual.

"Well, how am I supposed to feel? We went through all that shit with Raph to stop Lucifer from returning and all that was for nothing. He's back, we can't do anything about it, maybe we should just let the world burn," Gabriel said glumly.

"You don't really mean that." Brap looked at him with somber eyes.

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't. All I know is that all this is useless, Emma and her new gang of superheroes trying to stop the inevitable."

"You're starting to sound like the other Angels," Brap pointed out.

Gabriel kicked at a stray branch that lay near his feet. "Whatever."

"You've changed a lot. You lost hope."

"I don't think there was any to being with." And when Gabriel looked up Brap was gone.

The Archangel sighed then crushed the branch with his foot. Everything seemed pointless now.

-BNW-

_Exarp appeared in front of her, the Blade digging into his stomach._

_"NO!" Megan yelled as Libra ripped the blade from Exarp's stomach, the Angel falling to the ground._

_"You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." And then his crystal blue eyes fluttered shut. For good._

Emma woke up in a cold sweat, eyes wet with tears. She took a deep breath, hoping to exhale the sadness that shrouded her. It didn't work.

Emma had tried not to think about Exarp and his death. It hurt too much and she didn't need that kind of pain 24/7. But now it seemed to be resurfacing by itself as if her brain was forcing her to feel the pain. Emma swallowed. Guess it would be a sleepless night.

She got up out of her bed and decided to walk down the hallway. She had made three bedrooms, one for each of the newcomers. They were all sleeping now, hopefully sleeping peacefully. She kept walking down the hallway.

Emma froze when she saw a slip of paper taped to the wall. She raised an eyebrow and ripped it off the wall to examine it. It read:

_You okay kiddo?_

_-Gabe_

Looked like Gabe didn't know how to text. Emma sighed and made a pencil appear so she could write her answer on the back of the paper.

_No_

_-Emma_

Right after she was done writing it the slip of paper disappeared out of her hands. In a second another piece of paper appeared, this time with a new message:

_Care to share?_

_-The Candy Man_

Emma smirked then sat down to lean against the wall. She wrote back:

_Exarp's dead. Luci's back. I'm ginger. Everything sucks._

_-Depressed Teenager_

The note disappeared then reappeared again.

_Sorry, I wish I could help. In the meantime could you give this to Drew? It was his fathers._

_-Being the Stereotypical Messenger of God_

Emma flipped the paper over to see a gold coin taped to it. She carefully ripped the coin off of the paper to examine it. It looked like the coin Gabriel was looking at a few weeks ago. And didn't Exarp say something about Brap always flipping a gold coin? Huh, so it really was Brap's coin. Was Gabe friends with him too?

Emma wrote down a reply:

_Sure. Did you know him? Brap?_

_-Batman_

This time it took longer for the paper to reappear.

_Yes. Sorry, I have to go. Try to get some sleep._

_-Loki_

Emma scrunched her eyebrows together then crumpled up the piece of paper. Gabe was getting more and more mysterious by the day. She wondered what was going on with him.

She decided to shake off the thought and go back to her bedroom. She tried to sleep but unfortunately it seemed impossible. So she spent the rest of the night watching _Arrested Development_ until someone woke up.

The next morning Emma was tired as fuck. She really wished that she had gotten some sleep. But due to the fact that her brain was being an ass, she got none. So that's how she ended up sitting with Murdock on the couch downstairs, drinking her second Monster Energy Drink. Murdock found that a little ironic considering she hunted monsters for a living.

About a half hour later everyone else woke up. Emma and Murdock spent that half hour playing BS, a card game focused on yelled bullshit if the other person was lying about a card. Once everyone was downstairs they got hard at work researching. What that means is that they were pretty much looking everywhere for any sign of the Devil. But everything seemed quiet. Not a homicide in sight.

Basically it was about three hours of complete boredom. Emma had never been good at researching and trying to find the freaking devil was harder than doing a research essay without Wikipedia. Laptops were open, the Angels were flying around the world, and The News was on in the background. Emma almost threw her shoe at the TV screen after hearing a third story about the Kardashians.

But thankfully, after everyone was done eating sandwiches in silence, Drew directed everyone to look at the TV. They all watched as a reporter started a new story.

"About an hour ago the Museum of Natural History in New York City had been taken over by a supposedly insane man with magical powers. He is currently inside the building after forcing everyone to evacuate. Police forces have surrounded the museum and in an hour are going into the building to stop this lunatic…"

"Yup, that's Dad," Lynn said and closed her laptop. Emma was still curious as to how Lucifer was her father (was she a Nephilim too?) but decided that now was not the time to be asking personal questions. Now was the time to fight Lucifer.

They called Cas and Balthazar back after that then decided on what to do. They were able to print out a floor plan of the museum so they knew where to go.

The plan was this: They would appear in the main lobby. If Lucifer wasn't there then they would each split up into two groups. Emma, Murdock, Lynn, Drew, and Dean would take the left wing while Sam, Cas, Balthazar, and Jinx took the right wing. At least one person from each group was equipped with an Archangel blade. If any of them found Lucifer then they would pull the closest fire alarm to alert the others. Then they would try their best to stab him with the blade.

Now this was it. They were standing in the living room, all of them armed with weapons and they all had the plan memorized. Emma was almost shaking, she was about to enter her worst nightmare, but she had to look strong. She was the leader of this little group, wasn't she?

"Okay, time to synchronize our watches," Murdock said and held his wrist parallel to his head to look at his watch, waiting for the others to do the same.

"Murdock, we don't have watches," Emma pointed out.

"Aw, but that's the best part! You guys suck," he pouted and without warning Cas transported them all to the Museum of Natural History.

They all stood in the lobby, looking around for any sight of Lucifer. Luckily there was none. The lobby was big and spacious and looked like it did in that Ben Stiller movie _Night at the Museum._ And right in front of them stood a huge dinosaur skeleton, staring at them with its vacant eyes.

"I apologize for my brother," Lynn said as she approached the skeleton. Emma didn't even want to know.

"Okay, I guess it's time to split up," Sam said then nodded over towards Dean. "Stay safe. Keep them safe."

"You too," Dean said then the two groups went off in their designated directions.

Emma's group decided to stay downstairs then travel upstairs if they needed too. Dean had holy oil in his possession so if they needed to then they could use it on Lucifer. The Archangel blade shook in Emma's worried hand.

The more they kept walking in silence the more scary everything got. The lights flickered above their head as they walked through an Egyptian exhibit, passing mummy's and petrified scarab beetles. Yup, not creepy at all.

"Man, I hate mummies," Drew muttered as they kept on walking through the exhibit.

"Not to make the situation spookier than it already is, but I think Lucifer is close by," Lynn said, gripped her shotgun tight.

"Great," Dean said sarcastically, looking around for a fire alarm just in case.

After a few more steps they all stopped dead. In front of them was a security guard lying on the ground. His body was twisted and there was a gaping hole in his chest as if he was gutted like a fish. Scarlett blood pooled around him. But some of the blood seemed to trail away from the body, stopping at the wall just a few feet away. Emma looked at the wall and gulped.

On the wall, written in blood, were the words:

_Found you_

"Lynn, I didn't expect you to be here." Emma looking to her left and her heart stopped at who she saw. Lucifer was there, standing as smug and real as ever.

Emma looked over to see the Lynn's eyes were like daggers as she stared at her father. But she stayed silent.

Lucifer took a step closer towards the group and Dean instinctively stepped in front of the kids. "Don't get any closer, ass hat," he threatened.

Lucifer put his hands up in mock surrender and said, "Dean, no need to be over protective. I've just come to say hi. And Emma, it's finally nice to see you in person."

Emma glared at him, gripping the Archangel blade tighter.

"I'm just curious," Lucifer said as he swayed a little in his spot, "That Angel that let me out, did you know him?"

No one answered.

"I'll take that as a yes."

"Is Michael here too?" Dean asked out of the blue. Emma remembered what Sam had told her. Dean was Michael's vessel. The thought of him being out probably plagued him.

"You mean your designated driver? No, he's not here. I had to fight him for, what, a week probably to get out of the cage first and to close the door on him," Lucifer said with a wicked smile.

"What's your plan here? You're back but Michael isn't. I'm guessing you don't dig the whole apocalypse thing?" Dean pestered.

"Oh Dean, I'm not going to tell you my evil plan. Well, not just yet. There's something I want to do first."

Emma heard shuffling down the hall. Who else was there? Then Emma remembered something the reported had said. The police were now in the building. They were going to have to hurry this up.

"I feel, as a parent, that I haven't taught you many lessons," Lucifer said, his eyes on Lynn but also lingering over the rest of the group. "I think it's time you and your little friends learned one."

Then he snapped his fingers. The museum disappeared around Emma and the others, except for Dean, and in a split second they were no longer there. Instead, they were squinting in the harsh rays of sun in front of an odd shaped mirrored structure. The four looked around, surprised by the sudden transportation.

"Where are we?" Drew asked.

Emma's inner Angel compass answered everyone's question.

"Chicago."


	6. The Mirrored Bean

Chapter 6

**The Mirrored Bean**

"Why the hell are we in Chicago?" Lynn questioned while looking around the place they were in, Millennium Park the sign said, a confused look on her face.

"To get taught a lesson?" Drew said with an equal look of confusion on his face.

"What kind of lesson? The lesson of deep dish pizza?" Murdock raised an eyebrow and turned around to look at the park, which didn't really look like a park; it looked more like someone took a park and painted it with metal. So it kind of looked like a city square. Behind them was this weird sculpture that was shaped like a bean and it seemed to be made out of mirrors. Emma was tempted to run under it to see her twisted reflection but then reminded herself that she was on a mission.

"Whatever, let's just get out of here," Emma said then snapped her fingers to teleport out of the park and back to the museum. But nothing happened. She snapped her fingers again. Nothing.

"Okay, this is not good," she said, looking at the others with worry. "Did Lucifer take our powers or something?"

Lynn shook her head. "No, look at this," she said and, after making sure no one was looking, teleported a few feet to the left towards The Bean. "Maybe we're just limited to where we can teleport," she theorized.

"Can Lucifer do that to us?" Drew questioned.

"Knowing him, probably," Lynn answered.

"So, what do we do now?" Murdock asked, peering up at The Bean in awe.

"Let's walk around a bit. Keep a look out for our "lesson"," Emma said and then the four left the park, crossed the street, then started walking down the busy sidewalk of the city.

As they walked Emma couldn't help but think about Dean and the others. Were they sent somewhere too? Did Lucifer kill them? The thought sent a shiver down her spine.

Chicago was certainly interesting. Emma had never been there before but it was nice to see some sights. An assortment of people rushed by them, some wore business attire, some were teenagers hanging out, and a bunch of other people walked by as well. They passed this one kid who was huge, like he had the biggest build ever, and Emma couldn't help but think he had some ironic nickname like Tiny or something.

Emma's thoughts start to wander as the four walked silently through the city. As she was watching the passerby she thought that those were the people that she was fighting for. She didn't know a majority of the human race; she knew that some were good, some were bad, some were in the shades of grey, but she was fighting for people she didn't know. For some reason she thought it was strange until she remembered that yes, she was fighting for every individual, but she was also fighting for humanity as a whole. That drive to save the world somehow got stronger in her.

Emma was pulled out of her thoughts when a man, bald and somewhat stocky wearing a suit and a black trench coat, started passing by them. The man looked weirdly familiar. Where had she seen him?

Suddenly a memory started to run through her head. It was back at school, back when she was Megan, back when she thought the Winchesters were just creepy student teachers. The Demon holding the knife to her throat, the one that Gabriel made disappear…holy crap. The man who just walked passed them was that Demon!

"Guys, let's turn around," Emma said, stopping in front of them.

"Why?" Lynn asked.

"That guy that just walked passed us, he's a Demon. I know him, sort of. I think we should follow him. Who knows, maybe he could be our "lesson"," Emma said and the three nodded, all of them turning around and following the Demon that Emma pointed out.

They followed him for a few blocks before they rounded a corner and watched as the man stepped into an apartment building. The four looked at each other before following him inside the building.

The Demon was quickly walking into the elevator. The four, afraid they wouldn't be able to catch up, quickly ran into the elevator right before it closed. It was somewhat awkward having a Chosen One, a Nephilim, a Warlock, whatever the hell Lynn was, and a Demon all in one elevator. The Demon pressed the button to his floor as the elevator music played its timeless song.

After a few awkward moments of standing in the elevator it stopped and opened its door to the floor. Not wanting to look like they were following him, the four let them step out onto his floor and stayed in the elevator. After a few seconds they stepped out and watched as the Demon opened the door to his apartment.

"Should we fly in?" Drew asked, nodding towards the apartment.

"Yeah," Lynn said but then Emma shook her head.

"I think we should wait, listen and wait to make sure he isn't in the room. That way we won't risk the chance of getting seen," Emma said.

"Fine, do it the slow way," Lynn growled and crossed her arms.

Emma just shot her a look then held her ear against the door. She heard rustling in the room but she couldn't tell if the coast was clear. So she got up on her tippy toes and tried to look through the peep hole. Even though it looked like she was looking through the wrong end of a telescope, Emma could still see the Demon walk away into another room.

"Okay, let's go," Emma said. Man, this was weird. They didn't even have a plan. What were they going to do when they got inside?

Emma slowly turned the knob, surprised that it wasn't locked, and slipped inside first. The apartment was somewhat small; it had a small living room with a couch and a TV. There was a small book case next to the TV and the kitchen was to Emma's right. When she thought everything was clear, Emma waved the others in. They closed the door quietly behind them then stood awkwardly near the door.

"Now what?" Drew whispered.

"Now you die." Emma spun around to see that the Demon had teleported in front of them and was now aiming a shotgun at them. Crap.

"Shit," Lynn hissed.

"What are you doing here? Are you hunters?" The Demon pressed.

"Uh," they all stared at the Demon, unsure of how to answer. It looked like the Demon didn't recognize Emma since she transformed. He only knew the old her. Maybe if she told him that she was Megan then…something would happen? Oh well, it was better than what they were doing now.

"Listen, we know each other," Emma said. The Demon raised an eyebrow at her. "You held a knife to my throat in a High School."

The Demon looked a little confused before realization shrouded his face. "You're the Chosen One," he said.

"Uh, yeah, that's me," Emma said awkwardly.

"You've changed," he said.

"Yeah, long story."

The Demon was silent for a moment before putting the shotgun down on the breakfast bar next to him.

"Wait, so you're not gonna kill us?" Murdock asked nervously.

"No, unless you start to annoy me," the Demon said.

"But why? You had no trouble holding me against a knife over a year ago," Emma pressed.

"I've changed, much like you. I was working for Crowley back then. But after your Archangel buddy zapped me here I decided to have a change of heart. I'm lying low," the Demon explained. Wait, so Crowley had sent him to kill her back then? God, why was Crowley so fucking confusing all the time?

"So, you're on the good side?" Drew asked, his voice small.

"I'm more of in the grey area," the Demon said. "So, what are you kids doing here anyway?"

Yup, this was weird. Emma had a feeling that this Demon would hate her guts since most Demons did but this one was different. He seemed almost human. Totally weird.

"Uh, not sure. We kind of got sent here by someone and we can't leave. When I recognized you on the street I thought that maybe it would be best to follow you. I don't know, it was kind of a spur of the moment type of thing," Emma explained.

"Okay," the Demon started. "Well, why don't you stay here with me until you figure yourselves out?"

The four looked at each other. "Sure," Emma answered for them.

"Great. You can call me Chief," Chief said with his gruff voice.

"Nice to meet you, Chief. I'm Emma," she said then turned to her group behind her. "This is Lynn, Murdock, and Drew."

"Wait, I thought your name was-," Chief started by Emma cut him off.

"No, it's Emma," she said, sending him a look. She didn't want the gang to know about her old self, about Megan, because she wanted to start anew. She didn't want a drop of her past to get through the dam because if it did then the whole thing might come crumbling apart.

Chief nodded. "Help yourself to anything in the fridge, you can have a seat on the couch," he said then walked into another room. "And don't touch my stuff!" he yelled back to them.

After a few seconds of standing near the doorway, the four took a seat on the long couch in front of the TV. They all seemed a little surprised about how the encounter went.

So there they were, sitting on a couch in a Demon's apartment in Chicago, wondering if he had any pizza.


	7. The Savior of the Dark

Chapter 7

**The Savior of the Dark**

_Shit shit shit shit, _was the first thing that ran through Dean's mind after the flash of light that sent the kids away. He spun around on his heel, looking around desperately for them but he knew that it was pointless. Lucifer sent them to God knows where. And Lucifer was gone too, which was a bit of a relief for Dean.

Footsteps started coming closer to him. Crap, he forgot about the Five-O. A large gang of SWAT members came bursting into the room, their guns trained on Dean. He put his hands up so they knew he wasn't going to hurt them.

"Put down the gun!" One of them shouted.

"Look, you got the wrong guy!" Dean said but he knew it was pointless. He had gone through something similar to the situation he was currently in. Shit had already hit the fan.

"Put it down!"

"That won't be necessary." Dean turned to see Castiel. He heard confused whispers from the crowd of SWAT, surprised by Cas' sudden appearance. Dean didn't even have a chance to say something when Cas pressed two fingers to his forehead and they disappeared back to the safe house.

Back at the safe house he was greeted by the rest of the team.

"Where are the kids?" Sam asked.

"Uh, I don't know. We found Lucifer, he said something about teaching them a lesson, and then POOF they're gone," Dean said, throwing his arms up out of frustration.

"Wonderful," Jinx said sarcastically, falling onto the couch with a huff.

"How are we supposed to find them?" Sam asked.

"We'll look, they have to be somewhere," Balthazar said.

That wasn't enough for Dean. They were his responsibility; he was supposed to keep them safe. And he failed to do so. Man, why did he suck so much?

-BNW-

Everyone else was asleep. They were all a little wary of sleeping in a Demons apartment so Emma volunteered to stay up and keep an eye out. It's not like she would get any sleep anyway.

Emma was sat at the small round table in the small apartment kitchen. Her eyes shifted to the clock on the wall. 2:30 pm. Awesome.

"Still scared of me?" Emma turned around in her chair to see Chief standing there, still wearing his suit and his black trench coat.

"Not scared, just suspicious," Emma said casually.

"Yeah, thought you would be," he said then opened the fridge. After shutting the fridge quietly he sat down in the seat across from her at the table. He passed her a beer.

"Thanks," she said and opened it quickly.

"So, you're Emma now. What happened to the blonde Megan?" Chief questioned then took a swig of his beer.

"Long story," she said again.

"I've got time."

Emma sighed. She didn't feel like reminiscing but Chief had been nice to them; she might as well return the favor.

"Ever heard of The Powers?" Emma asked.

"Heard of 'em. They're those Angels, right?"

Emma nodded. "One of them stabbed me."

"Rough." Chief took another sip.

"There were these magic Tablets. They healed me but changed me completely." Emma took a long pull of her beer.

"That wasn't really a long story," Chief pointed out.

"It's a long story. I made a condensed version just for you. You should feel special."

Chief gave her a look. "Cheeky. I kind of miss the girl that elbowed me in the gut."

"Yeah, sorry about that."

"It's okay."

They sat in silence for a few moments. Emma took those few moments acknowledge that she actually liked this Demon. He was nice, he didn't ask too many questions, and it felt like she could share anything with him. He didn't try to cheer her up after any sad thing she said. There's one thing that Emma hates: to be pitied. And Chief didn't seem to pity her at all. That made him an A+ Demon in her book.

"So, why are you in Chicago? You never really told me who sent you here," Chief said.

"Would you believe that it was Lucifer?"

Chief froze and stared at her. "_What?_"

"Yeah, that Angel that stabbed me let him out again." Emma took another long sip of her beer. It was almost empty now.

"Fuck," Chief said.

"I'm guessing you're not a fan?" Emma raised an eyebrow at the Demon.

"Nope." Another long silence. "Listen, I'm guaranteeing any safety for you and your friends."

"I know that. We just need a place to stay. We'll get out of your hair soon, once we find a way to leave this place," Emma reassured.

"It's fine, I don't mind the company. Especially company that doesn't try to kill me," Chief smirked and chucked his empty beer bottle in the nearby trash can.

"You're not afraid of Demons finding out that you're helping the Chosen One?" Emma said, changing the subject.

"I don't care what the others think of me. They're all assholes." Emma smiled. It's not very often that you meet a Demon that doesn't care about other Demons and what they do. He's like the anti-Crowley.

"You should get some sleep," Chief said, standing up.

"I'm good." Emma looked down at her bottle.

"Just be careful. The night is dark and full of terrors."

Emma let out a little laugh. "Game of Thrones. Nice."

"What can I say; I'm a fan of good television." Chief smiled then walked out of the kitchen. "Goodnight _Emma_," he said before he disappeared into a different room.

Yeah, she definitely liked this guy.

-BNW-

The next morning Emma, Chief, and the gang were standing in front of a nearby Best Buy, Emma drinking a Monster, hoping it would give her some energy after her sleepless night.

"What are we doing here again?" Murdock asked.

"We need phones," Emma said and they all walked into the store. She eyed the iPhones towards the right of the store (she had to admit, she always wanted an iPhone). She rushed that way.

They would need four iPhones. That was a lot of money. Emma decided to do some Jedi mind tricks on the guy to give her four iPhones for free. Murdock stared at his in awe.

"This thing is so cool. It can call people _and _play games?" Murdock asked, toying around with his new phone.

"Your dork is showing again," Lynn said, playfully nudging him with her elbow.

Emma let out a little laugh and Chief rolled his eyes at the pair. She then headed over to a wall of phone cases. She decided to take one for each color she thought matched the gang. Purple for Murdock, silver for Drew, gold for Lynn (okay she didn't actual think Lynn was gold, Lynn just told her that it was her favorite color), and red for herself. They were all content.

They all then disappeared back to the apartment, now not knowing what to do. Murdock took the time to mess around with the Siri function of the iPhone.

"Ugh, this is stupid," Lynn wined, pacing back in forth in the living room. "Lucifer sent us here for a purpose. What is it?"

"I think I might know." Everyone one turned around to see that Chief was reading a newspaper. He held it out to them. The headline read _Man claims a Shadow was what Killed his Friend_. Chief tapped the front page with his finger.

"The night is dark and full of terrors."

-BNW-

"I don't get it," Drew said, hobbling up to the others who were sat at the table, looking at an old, dusty book. "Shadows are monsters now?"

Chief had told them that there were things, shadows, that killed people. They were rare; Chief said that according to Lore the shadows were unfinished or failed Demons that Lucifer first tried to create before creating Lilith. So, since they didn't comply with what Lucifer wanted, he sent them up to Earth to be trapped for eternity in the half world of the shadows.

"It's kind of like the Vashta Nerada from Doctor Who," Emma said, thinking back to the episode where the shadows ate the people on the Library plant.

"Well, that explains why Lucifer sent us here. He's pinning us against his own failed creations," Lynn said, leaning back in her chair. "So, how do we kill them? Sunlight?"

"No, they thrive on light. That's what makes them whole," Chief said, flipping through the pages of the book he had in front of him. He stopped, read a page, and then sighed. "It says that they can't be killed."

"Then how do we stop them?" Murdock asked, putting down his new phone for a second to ask his question.

"It says that they can be trapped, well, more trapped then they already are. We can sort of freeze them but they have to be jumping dimensions to do so," Chief said.

"Dimensions?" Drew looked at him, confused.

"Well, they're already in the "Shadow World" right? I guess that counts as a dimension," Emma pointed out. "I mean, these shadows are kind of like trapped spirits. What else can trap a spirit?"

They were all silent as they tried to think of the answer to that question. Emma tried to think back to when she was studying ghosts with Sam back at Bobby's. Didn't he say something about Bloody Mary one time?

Wait that was it. She knew how she could trap the shadows. "Mirrors."


	8. Shadow Tag

A/N: I just want to say Happy Anniversary to Arlena4815162342's character Lynn Logan! She's been on FF for two years today! I wanna thank Arlena for creating such a great character and for letting me use her in my story! :-)

Chapter 8

**Shadow Tag**

The plan was all set up. Though, Emma wasn't sure if she could follow everything exactly. It seemed pretty complicated when they all started shouting out their ideas on how to capture the shadows. But this is what it came down to.

They needed a mirrior. A big mirrior. They couldn't just go around holding mirriors and hoping to catch a shadow blindly. That's when Drew pointed out that they arrived near the largest mirrior for miles. The Bean.

It was almost like Lucifer was helping them, making them arrive in front of the thing that could trap there target.

Now that they had a the weapon, they just needed a plan. Millennium Park was big and always full of people, they couldn't just walts in there trying to hunt shadows in front of a bunch of people. That's where Murdock comes in. He said he knew a spell that could put an invisible sheild around the area. Then all they needed to do was get some of that "Do Not Cross" tape and put it around the area so people wouldn't walk into the park. Easy enough.

Now for the hard part. They had to find a way to lure the shadows to The Bean. Chief said that he found a way to do it in the book he was reading before. Suprisingly, all they needed was the blood of a Demon. In the lore it said the the shadows have the possibility of being whole again if they drank the blood of a real Demon. Good thing Chief was on there side.

Then all they had to do was lure the shadows under The Bean then poof, problem solved. Maybe they would be able to go home after that.

"What's Class Ten mean?" Emma asked while peering over Murdock's shoulder to look at the pocket spell book he had at all times.

"It means that only Class Ten warlocks are able to do the spell," Murdock explained, pointing his finger at the incantation.

"What Class are you?"

"Ten. It's the highest Class." Emma raised an eyebrow. Dude really was powerful.

"We'll have to do the spell now so we don't create a scene." Emma looked up at the sky. Murdock was right, the sun was just starting to rise so not too many people were out. She looked over to see Lynn and Drew quickly putting up the tape. Chief stood off to the side, watching as everyone did their jobs.

Emma was still surprsied that Chief wanted to help them. Although he did seem nice and had been nice to them, she didn't think he was the kind of nice where he would help them deafet evil shadow creatures.

"Do you need anything for the spell?" Emma offered, feeling a little useless at the time.

"No, I'm good. I just need to say the words." Murdock looked down at the book, raised a hand towards the park and then started saying a few lines in what Emma assumed was Latin. There was a quick flash of a bright light then the warlock closed his book, shoving it back in his pocket.

"Did it work?" she asked.

"Well, let's see." Murdock quickly ran over to the park. Emma watched until all of a sudden Murdock vanished as he stepped into the park. A few seconds later he came running back out.

"It works," he said with a prideful smile.

"Good job," Emma complimented, patting him on the shoulder.

"The tape's all set up," Lynn said as she, Drew, and Chief came walking over towards them. The sun grew higher in the sky.

"Is everything ready?" Drew asked, leaning against his cane. Wait, was he going to fight? How could he lure the shadows into The Bean when he couldn't run? Emma was thinking about asking but wondered if it would be rude to do so. Drew didn't seem to object the invitation to fight, but what if he gets in trouble?

Emma shook away the thought. Drew knew the danger he was getting into, she shouldn't have to babysit him.

"Yup, shields up, suns up, thumbs up." Murdock did a thumbs up at the group with a big grin on his face. "This is going to be just like the movies!"

Emma saw Lynn roll her eyes playfully.

She looked over at Chief. Expressionless, per usual.

"Okay, lets get this over with," Emma said and the five dashed into the park. They walked over to The Bean, which was reflecting rays of dawn towards them. Well, it seemed like she still got distracted by shiny things.

"Emma." Lynn was snapping her fingers in front of her face to get her attention. "We have work to do."

"Oh yeah, sorry," Emma apologized, a little embarrassed.

She looked over to see that Chief was rolling up his sleeve and crouching over a bowl. He slowly glided a knife over his arm, blood dripping down into the bowl. After a few minutes they had enough Demon blood to lure the shadows in.

"Now we wait," Chief sighed, putting the knife back into his jacket pocket.

"Ugh," Murdock groaned and leaned against The Bean.

Emma did the same, crossing her arms over her chest and watching as people started to pass, completely unaware of them. Some stopped curiously to look over the yellow tape, probably wondering what the hell was wrong with the park. Emma smirked a little, amused by their innocence.

"You hear that?" Lynn asked after a few minutes passed by. Emma stood up straight, along with Murdock, and looked around. But there was nothing.

"I thought I heard whispering," she explained, looking as alert as ever.

"Yeah, I think I hear it too," Chief said, backing away from the bowl.

Emma closed her eyes and focused on listening. That's when she heard the whispering. It must be the shadows talking.

_We are everywhere_

_We know all your secrets_

_All your flaws_

_All you futures_

The words sent a shiver down Emma's spine. The shadows knew everything? Fan-fucking-tastic.

_The warlock is too innocent for battle_

Emma opened her eyes to look at Murdock. He just stared down at his feet. This is not good, they're trying to psych us out.

_The cripple wants to die_

Everyone looked over at Drew. He was gripping his cane tight, not looking at anyone.

_The Demon is an outcast_

Well, that wasn't very suprising. But the whispers were getting louder with each person it called out.

_The Hybrid carries too much guilt_

Hybrid? Lynn was a Hybrid? What did that mean?

_And your Messiah can't even save one measley Angel! _

Emma felt a jolt as she got flung back against The Bean by an inivisble force. A wave of pain shocked through her head at the impact, leaving her dizzy for a few seconds before a dark, shadow of a hand wrapped around her throat.

_What makes you think she can save you all!_

Emma struggled against the grip of the shadow, trying to break free from the strong ghost of a grip it had on her. She tried to look at the shadow but all she saw was it's arm. Where was the rest of it?

She had to get it under The Bean, that was the only way to stop it.

"A little help over here?" she yelled to her stunned comrades. They quckily came to their senses and started to charge at the shadow.

"Hey, ass hat!" Emma looked over through her blurry vision due to lack of oxygen to see Chief holding up the bowl of his blood. The shadow instintly realeased it's grip on Emma. She took a deep breath, trying to regain some strength.

Emma looked at the ground to see the shadow that was choking her a moment ago. It was now racing after Chief who was luring it under The Bean.

"Are there any more?" Murdock asked. His question was answered when the warlock was flung by a new shadow, falling to the ground with a thud.

"Ow," he groaned and quickly scrambled to his feet as the shadow came towards him.

"Quick, everyone get under The Bean!" Emma instructed and ran under the sculpture into the dim mirriored path.

Everyone followed, joining her in a matter of seconds. Chief came up behind her and said, "One down." He must've got rid of the the shadow that followed him, Emma thought.

"I think this is the only other one," Drew said, leaning against one of the mirriored panels.

This shadow seemed smarter than the other one. It was waiting outside of The Bean, away from the threat. Emma wondered if it was contemplating whether to run for the blood or to play it safe. There had to be another way to get it to the mirriors.

_The Hybrid must die_

Everyone looked over at Lynn. "Why?" she questioned the omipresent being that was only a few feet away from them.

_Your father abandon us, left us to torture for eternity in the world inbetween _

"Well, at least you have a good reason." Lynn smirked but took a few steps backwards.

"Okay, I'm not playing this bullshit game." Chief walked over to one of the mirriored panles and elbowed it strongly, making the glass shatter into shards. "If he's not coming to us then I'm bringing the fight to him."

"No, let me do it," Emma said, reaching out to take the mirrior shard that Chief just picked up.

"Sorry Emma, I almost killed you once, I'm not gonna do it again."

Chief took a deep breath then sprinted towards the shadow, holding the mirrior shard out in front of him. Emma held her breath.

If the shadow had a face, Emma could swear that it was smirking. It had a plan, one that Chief was either blind to or chose to ignore. The shadow was luring him out. Because a Demon is the only thing that can make a shadow whole.

"Chief, no!" Emma cried but it was too late. The shadow had already disarmed the shard from him. Chief mumbled something under his breath then stared down the shadow.

"You want to be a Demon, huh?" Chief questioned, inching backwards as the shadow came closer to him. The shadow was no longer moving on the ground, it was now 3-D, taking actual steps towards him. "If you do then you're a fool. You don't know what Hell's like."

Emma saw Lynn flinch a little at Chief's last sentence.

"But yet again." Chief clenched his fists. "Hell is for fools."

The shadows hand shot out and plunged itself into Chief's gut. Emma wanted to run out and help him, but she couldn't, it was too late. She was always too late.

His eyes flicked black and Emma suddenly remembered the cries of everyone back at her High School, back to when she didn't know that it was Chief who was holding the knife to her throat. _His eyes are black!_

A few seconds later and Chief was on the ground, lifeless. The shadow took it's trophy by sucking the blood that was pouring out from the gaping hole in Chief's body. The shadow then started to twitch and scream as it turned into a dark, black cloud of smoke. It got it's wish. It was a Demon.

Emma swallowed, holding back tears, as the now turned Demon started rushing towards them, probably hoping to use one of them as a meat suit.

"Run!" Murdock urged but they didn't need to run. Everything around them turned white as they were again being transported somewhere else.

Emma groaned as she landed face first into the ground. She quickly pushed herself up, spitting out a leaf and wiping dirt of her clothes. The others did the same.

They were now in a forest. Emma sighed, thinking that they would have to wonder around in a forest forever until she spotted a cabin not too far away. Guess they would be going there next.

Ugh, why couldn't Lucifer just send them home?


	9. The Cabin in the Woods

Chapter 9

**The Cabin in the Woods**

"Ouch," Emma heard Drew wince under his breath. They had started the walk to the cabin, figuring that was the best place to go.

"You okay?" she asked, looking over a Drew who had stopped walking.

"Yeah I'm fine, I just landed weird on my bad leg," he said through gritted teeth.

"You can use me for balance, if you want," Murdock offered, looking at the Nephilim with gentle eyes.

"I said I'm fine," Drew spat and continued to walk.

Emma sighed; she knew what this was about. The shadows had revealed something about him that was supposed to be a secret. Drew wanted to die. She wished she knew why or was able to talk with him about it, but it didn't seem like she could. It's not like they were all in group therapy.

The other most likely felt the same. The shadow said that Murdock was too innocent for battle…which was true. He had lived alone his entire life; he didn't know what he was getting into most of the time. His type of bravery was verging on stupidity.

And then there was Lynn. The shadow called her a Hybrid. What was that supposed to even mean? Was she a full efficient car? Emma's curiosity was peaking; she was going to have to find out soon.

But what the shadow had said about her nerved Emma to no end. She couldn't save Exarp. The shadow was blaming her for his death. Which it had a right to because it was her fault. She could have done something but instead she just stood there like an idiot while Libra stuck a blade into his stomach.

Emma decided to shake off the thought as they neared the cabin. She could think about the shadows and guilt trip and mourn over Chief another time.

"So, should we just knock on the door, see if anyone's home?" Lynn asked, looking around the porch they now stood on. The place looked old, the wood decaying, giving it sort of an eerie look. As Emma looked around as well she couldn't help but notice something that caught her eye. Right in front of the door was a line of salt. The same for the windows.

"Looks like a hunter lives here," Emma said, pointing to the salt lines.

"Well, that's good," Drew sighed, either in relief or tiredness Emma didn't know.

"Who's there?" Emma jerked her head back towards the door when she heard that. A little slot in the door was now open, a pair of ocean blue eyes staring at them.

"Uh, we're hunters. We had a bit of trouble on a hunt and one of us is injured." Emma could feel Drew's glare on her as she said that. "We would really appreciate some help if you let us in."

There were a few moments of silence before a flask was hanging out of the slot in the door.

"Everyone drinks it," the voice demanded and Emma nodded. The flask probably had holy water in it. Hunter indeed.

Emma grabbed the flask and took a swig then passed it along. Murdock and Drew drank from it quickly but when it was Lynn's turn she didn't do anything. She just held the flask with a panic look on her face.

"What's wrong?" Murdock whispered to Lynn.

"It's, uh," she stuttered.

"Drink it or you're not coming in," the voice from behind the door stated.

"Just drink it," Emma ordered, her patience wearing thin.

"I can't okay!" Lynn yelled, frustrated.

"Well, why can't you Lynn? Are you a demon?" Emma questioned, glaring at her.

"Wait, Lynn?" the voice seemed surprised. The pair of blue eyes seemed to recognize her. "Lynn Logan?"

Lynn looked surprised. "Uh, yeah. Do I know you?"

"No, but I know you." Emma heard some rattling, like locks being undone, before the door opened. There stood the voice that was behind the door. He looked about Murdock's age and was about as tall as the warlock, probably a little taller. He had somewhat messy brown hair, a small strand of hair jutting out a little in the middle of his forehead. He held a shotgun casually in his right hand.

"You're Lynn Logan, from the Unfallen series," he said, smiling at her. "I'm a big fan."

Lynn's mouth was wide open, staring at the boy almost like he was crazy.

"Wait, what?" Murdock asked, confused.

Lynn sighed. "The Unfallen books are books about me and the things that have happened to me. A prophet named Chuck wrote them."

Emma raised an eyebrow. "Chuck wrote books about _you_ too?" There's this prophet named Chuck who is fixated mostly with the Winchester's lives. So, having nothing better to do, he decided to write books about their hunting adventures. And soon enough there was a book about Emma too called _Signs of God._ The last time Emma met Chuck he said that he was working on a sequel.

"Wait, no way," the boy now looked over towards Emma. "So this is what happened at the end of _Balance_?"

Balance? Oh, that's what Chuck must've called the sequel. Great.

"Uh, yeah, I guess?" Emma wasn't sure what to say, though he hoped that this guy wouldn't say anything about her past.

"This is pretty cool," he said then leaned against the door frame. "You guys are welcomed here. I'm Connor Rain Heart. But you can just call me Connor."

"I'm Emma Crimson," she introduced herself to cute Connor- no wait, just Connor, not cute, totally not cute.

"Like the name," he grinned at her.

"You obviously know Lynn. The one with the glasses is Murdock Leroy and that's Drew Copperfield," Emma introduced the rest of her team.

"Nice to meet you all," he said. Emma couldn't help but notice that he had a little bit of a Brooklyn accent. Were they in New York? "I assume you're the injured one?" he said, pointing at Drew.

Drew nodded shyly. "All I need is some Advil, really."

"Okay, well my casa es su casa," he said then turned around to lead everyone inside.

Everyone started to follow but Lynn. She coughed and said, "Um, could you break the salt line?"

"Oh yeah sure," Connor said and used the butt of his shotgun to break the line.

"Wait, wait, wait, are you a Demon?" Emma turned to block Lynn from going inside. She couldn't cross over salt, she couldn't drink holy water; those were the major signs of someone being a Demon.

"What's it to you?" she snapped.

"Well, we're a team now. If you're a Demon we should all know of it," Emma said then looked over at Connor. "You obviously know what's going on here. Is she a Demon?"

Lynn shot Connor a look. He shrugged. "She's a half Demon," he admitted.

"What the hell?" she yelled at Connor.

"I believe in being honest with yourself," Connor said. "You'll never live with yourself if you can't accept who you are."

"Half Demon?" Murdock repeated. He looked surprised but there was something else in his eyes, a little glimmer of pain.

Lynn let out a sigh in defeat. "Yeah, I'm half a Demon, okay? Lucifer and Lilith are my Mommy and Daddy. Now get over it," she said then stomped into the cabin.

Everyone was silent as the rest of them entered the cabin. That was… a little more painful than Emma hoped it would be. She just wanted to know the truth; keeping secrets in their situation was a bad thing. Emma needed to make sure that she could trust her new friends. She didn't care that Lynn was a Demon (she was on their side, so that made her good) but all Emma cared about was that she was lying to them. Or, at least, avoiding the truth.

But that's what the shadows meant by Hybrid. She was half Demon, half Angel. The child of the Devil.

Lynn stood by the couch, her arms folded with an angry look on her face. What could Emma say? The words seemed to be caught in her throat.

"Listen Lynn," Murdock spoke up, walking over towards Lynn. "We don't care that you're part Demon or whatever. All we care about is that you're on our side. I know that some warlocks have tarnished our reputation but who cares? I'm cool because I'm not one of those bad warlocks. Drew doesn't use his Angel powers for evil. Emma doesn't either. And you don't. We won't judge you on your birth; we'll judge you on your actions. And so far your actions deserve a medal of honor."

Holy shit. That sounded like something Obama would say.

Lynn was silent for a few moments before practically leaping onto Murdock to give him a big hug. "Thanks," Emma heard her whisper to him.

"What he said," Emma interjected.

Lynn laughed a little then released Murdock from the hug.

"It's like I've been transported to a Lifetime movie," Connor said, throwing his shotgun onto the chair next to him.

"Ditto," Drew agreed, hobbling over to the couch to sit down. "I'll take that Advil now, please."

"On it," Connor said and walked to what Emma presumed to be the bathroom.

"Sorry," Emma said to Lynn. "I probably sounded like a bitch."

Lynn nodded. "No hard feelings."

Emma sighed a little then took a moment to look around the house. The cabin was actually pretty huge. The biggest part of it was the living room, which they were standing in right now. The ceiling was high above their heads. There was a fairly big TV with a couch and a few love seats that looked towards the TV. On the sides of the TV were two huge bookcases, both of them filled completely with books. Over top Emma could see the hallway of the upstairs with a few doors that probably lead to bedrooms. Behind them was another door that most likely led to a kitchen. And Connor came out of the bathroom that was to the right of them.

"Here ya go." Connor threw a bottle of Advil over to Drew who caught it with ease.

"Thanks man," Drew said, twisting the cap open and taking a pill.

"No problem." Connor then looked over the four of them, as if trying to think of what to say. "What kind of hunt are you on? Because if you're having trouble then I could help."

Emma almost forgot that Connor was a hunter. A million questions started to run through her head. Did he live in the cabin alone? Where was the cabin exactly? How old was he? Was he a good hunter?

"Well, about that…," Murdock scratched his head. "We're not really on a hunt. It's more of a big situation we're in."

"And what's that?" Connor questioned.

"The Devil's field trip."


	10. God's Hammer

Chapter 10

**God's Hammer **

Emma and the rest of the gang were nowhere to be found. Or, at least, that's what Cas said when he returned back to the safe house a few hours later looking disheveled and hopeless. He said that Lucifer must've found a way to wipe them off the Angel Locating Grid, practically making them invisible.

It's now been two days with the four being gone and Dean was starting to get worried. There had to be a way for them to contact them but so far there was nothing. No phone call, no weird Angel message, zip, nothing. And they had no way to look for them. So Sam suggested that they focused on taking down Lucifer, telling him that they are probably fine, those kids know how to hold up a fight.

Dean still worried though. It was his nature. Emma was family to him now and god damn it he wasn't going to lose her like he did Megan. Even though Emma still technically was Megan it didn't stop him from thinking that she was dead.

But Dean didn't mention anything about being worried; he just nodded to Sam and went on with his work. At the end of the day he was exhausted and ended up collapsing onto the couch, falling asleep instantly.

And now he stood in front of the safe house, wondering how he got outside in the first place. Wasn't he just asleep?

"You're dreaming, stupid." Dean looked over and froze at who he saw. It was…Megan?

"Megan?" he looked at her, stunned. "What?"

Megan rolled her eyes. "I told you, you're dreaming."

"Well, yeah I get that but usually when people talk to me in dreams they're Angels or dead."

"In a way I'm sort of dead," Megan said, stuffing her hands in her pockets. "It's kind of like, this is my old personality," she gestured to herself, "And it's taking a form."

"That doesn't make any sense," Dean said, shaking his head. Nothing seemed to make sense anymore. "What are doing here then?"

"You missed me, so I've come to visit your noggin," Megan smiled. "Also I have to tell you some stuff."

"Now that makes sense," Dean sighed, wondering what new prophecy or fortune Megan was going to tell him.

"Come on, I don't feel like standing." Megan then snapped her fingers, making them appear on the roof of the safe house. Megan sat down, Dean following.

"So, how's Emma?" she asked.

"She's you," Dean pointed out. "Shouldn't you know?"

Megan shrugged. "It's…difficult to explain. I wonder if the Doctor ever went through this…"

"Well, she's fine. Missing, but, fine, I guess," Dean stuttered, unsure of what to say.

"Don't worry, she is fine. Lucifer didn't hurt her or any of her friends. They're just on a little field trip but they might be gone for a while," Megan explained casually.

"That's good," Dean sighed with relief. Emma was okay.

Megan peered over at him and said, "You're sad."

Dean raised an eyebrow. "Well yeah, Lucifer's out of the cage, you're or Emma's missing, that's all pretty fucking depressing."

"It's not that," she shook her head. "Do you not like Emma or something?"

"What?" he said, shocked. "Emma's you. Why wouldn't I like Emma?"

"She's a little different; don't tell me you haven't noticed." She was right, Dean did notice. The few weeks he spent with Emma proved that. She seemed to talk more with Sam and would get angry at the littlest of things. Megan was never like that. She would always just laugh something off or make a big show out of her annoyance, which was always a bit entertaining.

"Told ya," she said and leaned back.

"Why did you have to leave?" Dean didn't care anymore about watch everything he said. It was his dream anyway.

"I got stabbed dipshit."

"Stop being a smartass." Megan smiled again then looked up at the full moon that hung over their heads.

"Everything happens for a reason, whether you like it or not. It's like Gods got everything planned out on a map he keeps in his back pocket. Every domino that falls always knocks another one down. The world's just one big fuck up of dominos knocking each other over," she said then sighed. "Somehow it's kind of comforting."

"Well thanks for those words of wisdom, Yoda," Dean laughed. "See, I haven't laughed around Emma at all."

"That's not nice; we share the same sense of humor."

"I know, maybe it's just that I was so used to talking to you," Dean shrugged. "Now it seems you like to talk more with Sam."

"That might just be because of this current situation you're in. Lucifer. Sam had him inside his brain. I had him inside my head. I never really got to talk about it," Megan pointed out.

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

They were both silent for a few minutes, looking up at the moon as it pierced through the darkness of night that surrounded them.

"Happiness can be found even in the darkest of time, if one only remembers to turn on the light," Megan quoted.

"Hey, that was on the wall in the cave," Dean realized.

"The quote was directed towards you. So, basically, just stop being sad."

"Not as easy as you think."

"Boy, do I know," she said then stood up. "It seems I have to go. You're gonna wake up soon to something not so pleasant."

Dean stood up as well. "What is it?"

"You'll find out." She then gave him a quick hug and vanished, along with the safe house and everything around him.

Dean woke up with a start to see that Cas was the one who had awakened him. The Angel looked shaken and sad, his deep blue eyes glazed.

"Cas?" Dean rubbed his eyes of sleep and sat up. "What's wrong?"

"I have bad news."

-BNW-

Gabriel stood in front of the river that flowed through Michigan, the moon shining through the small ripples of water that moved with the small wind that started to grow. He had started coming to the river every day now instead of whenever he felt sad. Because he felt sad every day now.

He knew what Lucifer was planning. It was always destined to happen eventually, but Gabriel had hoped that maybe if they did keep Lucifer in the cage then they could've avoided it. He had always been known to hope too much.

But he knew what he had to do now. The Archangel had a plan and he hoped (there he went with the hoping again) that everything would work, that all the pieces would be set in play to start the game. What was happening now would be very important in the future. Though he couldn't help but think it would cause a lot of damage.

"Surprised that I came?" Gabriel turned to see his big brother, Lucifer standing a few feet away from him.

"Not really," he shrugged.

If Lucifer surrendered right now then everything could be avoided. But the Devil wasn't known to do that.

"What do you want baby brother?" Lucifer narrowed his eyes at him.

"Just thought we could catch up. You know, being brothers and all."

"You're up to something," he accused.

"Usually," Gabriel smiled and stepped closer to his brother. "You're going to do it, aren't you?"

Lucifer chuckled, "Yeah, thought you would know about that. But yes, I am."

"You don't have to do this you know. You could just hide away on Earth with me," Gabriel pleaded even though he knew his brother would decline his offer.

"Please, do you really think I would do that? I'm not a coward like you, Gabriel," he hissed.

"Then I'm going to have to stop you."

"This is it?" Lucifer looked surprised. "This is your big plan to stop me?"

"It's worth a shot." Gabriel clutched the crystal in his pocket, taking a deep breath. He then took out his Archangel blade.

"I think I'm having déjà vu," Lucifer said. "I mean, I'd really hate to have to kill you again."

"No you wouldn't," he stated, no longer clutched the crystal in his pocket. _Well, this is it_, he thought. _I hope Chuck doesn't write that I was crying or anything._

Lucifer's face turned seriously and then he lunged at Gabriel who had the Archangel blade up in front of him. His brother grabbed his arm, making him dropped the blade. This was happened a little quicker than Gabriel would've liked.

"You're weak," Lucifer spat, levitating the blade over to him.

"No, you are," Gabriel said then took a deep breath before Lucifer plunged the blade into his stomach, the world around him turning white.

A/N: Sorry for a depressing chapter but you know, it happens. Also 100 points go to the person who gets why I named this chapter "God's Hammer" (except Arlena because she already knows XD)


	11. Our Stars

Chapter 11

**Our Stars**

Emma woke up in the middle of the night to a horrible pain in her stomach. She clenched her sheets, trying as hard as she could not to scream as pain seared through her. It felt like being stabbed. She would know.

It lasted about ten minutes. When the pain finally stopped Emma just sat there wondering what the hell just happened. She was dazed, staring into the dark guest room that she was currently in. She started to worry. It didn't feel like normal stomach pain. When she was finally able to go back to sleep she felt a horrible feeling of dread, as if something terrible had happened.

When Emma woke up in the morning she decided to forget about the pain that woke her up, hoping it was just some sort of stomach bug.

She quickly put on some jean shorts, converse, and her "Holden Caulfield thinks you're a Phony" t-shirt. She had to admit, she loved _The Catcher in the Rye._

When she got downstairs she saw that everyone else had already woken up. Emma could smell eggs and pancakes being cooked as she walked down the stairs and into the living room.

"Connor's making breakfast," Lynn said as she sat crossed legged on the couch next to Murdock, watching _Firefly._ Drew was sitting on the loveseat next to the couch, watching as well.

Emma nodded then walked into the kitchen where, indeed, Connor was bent over a stove, cooking breakfast.

"You don't have to do this you know," she said as she walked over to him.

Conner didn't seem surprised by her sudden entrance. "Yes, I do. You're my guests," he smiled and flipped a pancake.

"Well, thanks then," Emma said and drummed her fingers on the countertop, unsure of what else to do.

"So, you haven't been able to contact the Winchester's?" Connor asked.

Emma shook her head. "Nope. I've tried calling them but we never seem to have a signal. And when I tried using a payphone once back in Chicago all I got was static. I don't think Lucifer wants us to talk to them."

"Probably." When Connor looked over at her he smiled and laughed. "I like your shirt."

"Thanks," she smiled. "I can see that you're into books."

"The giant bookshelves make it kind of obvious, huh?" Connor started piling the pancakes onto a plate. "_A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads only lives once."_

Emma raised an eyebrow. "That sounds familiar…," Where had she heard that quote before?

"George RR Martin, the guy who wrote the Game of Thrones books," he said.

"Oh yeah! I haven't read the books but I've seen the TV show and I've seen that quote like everywhere," Emma said, hoping she didn't sound like a babbling idiot.

"Yeah I've read them all. I've read every book on those bookshelves," Connor pointed out as he started to put the eggs (some were scrambled, some weren't) onto a separate plate. "It's not like a have much else to do besides read and hunt."

Emma nodded then helped Connor carry the plates of food to the kitchen table where they all ate breakfast.

After everyone was done eating (Murdock had six pancakes) they started to tell Connor more about the shadows that they encountered back in Chicago. He didn't seem to know about them but he said that he would help them out if they ever ran into them again while they were there.

And 'there' was Long Island, New York. Connor told them that he found the cabin when he first started hunting and decided to set up shop.

After that everyone went off to do their own thing. There wasn't much that they could do, seeing that they couldn't leave anywhere past the forest that the cabin was in. So they just stuck to watching _Firefly_ and wondering when the next big attack on them would happen. Because from what they learned from their little trip so far was that something was always going to come after them.

At one point when they were watching Connor sat up and informed them that he would be on the roof doing some target practice. Everyone nodded but went back to watching the show. But after a couple of minutes Emma decided to join him up on the roof.

To get to the roof top she had to climb up a ladder that was placed on the side of the house. Emma never really liked heights but she decided to tough it out, seeing that if she fell she could just poof back to the ground.

It took some maneuvering and balance to walk over to wear Connor was lying down. He was clutching a sniper and looking through its scope. First Emma wondered where the hell he got a nice sniper like that before looking to see what he was aiming at. What he was aiming at were targets, a bunch of them placed on tree trunks and branches. A moment later she saw one of the hanging targets fly back a little, a new hole appearing near the bulls-eye. She was surprised by how quiet the sniper was.

"Wanna try?" Man, you can never sneak up on this guy.

"Sure," Emma said and walked over to him. Connor moved over so she could lay down where the sniper was.

"You've gotta keep it steady, the slightest movement can mess up your whole shot," he said, lying on his side, leaning on his left arm. "A good trick is to hold your breath."

Emma nodded and positioned herself so that she could look through the scope and pull the trigger. First she chose a target (one not too challenging) then took a deep breath. A second later she started to hold her breath, making sure she was steady, and then pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the edge of the target, shattering some of the wood on the tree.

"Good try," Connor said as Emma looked up at him with a disappointed look. "It takes a while to get even remotely good."

She nodded. "How did you even get this thing anyway?"

"I know a guy," he smiled then pulled something out of his pocket. A box of cigarettes and a lighter. He pulled one out of the box before returning the box to his pocket.

"You smoke?" Emma was a little bit surprised; he didn't smell like smoke.

"Yup," he said as he placed the cigarette between his lips. He then quickly snapped open his lighter, revealing a small flame, and held it up to ignite it. Then he put the lighter down next to him.

"How old are you?" She couldn't help but ask.

"Seventeen," he answered, taking the cigarette out of his mouth for a moment to blow smoke up towards the sky. "Sometimes, with this life, it's better to see things through smoke than to see the monsters for who they truly are."

Emma nodded then moved the sniper off to the side. "So, how did you start hunting anyway?"

Connor blew out another puff of smoke before he answered. "My parents were hunters. They taught me and my brother everything they knew. But then one day some demons got ahold of them. My brother went after them but it was too late. After that he pretty much raised me. Until about two years ago when he went on a hunt and never came back."

"I'm sorry," Emma said. It always seemed like hunters always have a sad story. Then again if they didn't then would they even be hunting?

"You don't have to be sorry for something someone else did." Connor shook his head and inhaled the smoke. "It just happens, you know? People die; it's what they're supposed to do some time or another. And you just have to take it as it is and remember."

"Remember what?"

Connor looked her straight in the eyes, smiled, and said, "Everything."

That's the moment where Emma decided that she couldn't help but like Connor.

"So, you're Emma now," he said after a few moments of silence.

"Yeah, when the Tablet's healed me they ended up changing my appearance completely." Emma thought back to when she first saw her new face. Not a happy memory.

"Why do I have a feeling that you haven't told your little group about Megan?" Connor waved his cigarette accusingly at her.

"I haven't told them."

"Why not?"

Emma shrugged. "I just thought it would be best to start over, leave the past behind, shit like that."

"But yet you yelled at Lynn to tell you who she really was? Don't you think you're being a little hypocritical?"

Emma sighed. "Maybe but this is different. It's not like I'm a Demon, I'm just….I changed that's all. They don't need to know about Megan."

"Well, you do what you want, but remember it's always best to be true to yourself." Connor then pressed his cigarette into the wood of the roof, extinguishing it, and stood up. He then helped Emma up. "Lucifer's here, that means something big is happening, isn't it?"

Emma was silent for a few moments. "I think so."

"Like, end of the world big?"

"I don't think he'll be that nice this time."

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. They all just stayed in the cabin, keeping their guard up in case something came. Connor even went out to get a newspaper to make sure there weren't any shadow attacks or anything. But alas, there was nothing even remotely supernatural.

They all decided that they should keep watch during the night, just in case something did come. Emma took the first watch then after a few hours woke up Drew for his watch.

But once Emma fell asleep she started to dream. She was standing by herself, surrounded by a blinding white light. She had to squint so the lights wouldn't blind her. She stood like that for a while, as if she was glued to the floor, unable to move. But then she noticed a dark spot appear in front of her. It looked kind of like the shadows but different. More…gooey. Eventually the dark globs started to engulf her, suffocating her until she finally woke up.

Emma has really started to hate sleeping.

So, since sleep was out of the option yet again, she decided to join whoever was on watch at the time. When she got downstairs she saw that it was Connor.

"Couldn't sleep?" He was smoking another cigarette.

"My brain hates me," Emma joked as she sat down next to him on the couch. "What are you doing?" she asked with a yawn.

"Rereading _Good Omens._" He looked at her for a second then closed his book and grabbed her hand. Emma felt her heart jump. Fuck, what was she doing?

Connor led her over to one of the bookshelves and released her hand. "Pick a book."

Emma raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"You can tell a lot about a person by what books they read."

Man, this kid really was something else.

Emma walked closer and scanned the rows of book in front of her. She noticed familiar titles of books she had either read or seen before but once she saw one book she just had to pick it.

Connor smiled when he saw the book she chose. "_The Fault in Our Stars _by John Green. Great book," he smiled.

"More like the best book," Emma said as she scanned through the pages again, seeing that Connor had written and highlighted things on some of the pages.

"I'm on a rollercoaster that only goes up, my friend," Connor quoted as he stuck the cigarette back between his lips.

"Of course you are, _Augustus_," Emma teased.

Connor, who looked as happy as ever just a moment ago, sudden frowned and looked towards the door. "Did you hear that?" he whispered.

"No," she whispered back. Oh no, what now?

That's when Emma heard it, a horrible, shrewd voice that seemed to echo through the wood of the cabin.

"_We're here." _


	12. The Joker's Gambit

Chapter 12

**The Joker's Gambit**

"Shadows," Emma said, frozen for a few seconds. Connor's cigarette dropped from his lips, extinguishing as it hit the floor. Oh God, was this going to happen every time they were transported to a new place?

She needed to think fast. The shadows could be anywhere at this moment, they could be in the cabin for all she knew. They needed to get out of there and fast.

"Connor, I need you to get all the mirrors that you have in the house, I'll go wake up the others," Emma instructed. Connor nodded and ran off towards the bathroom.

Emma quickly zapped into the guest bedrooms where the others were sleeping. They all quickly followed her once she told them what was going on. In less than a minute they were all back down in the living room, dressed and armed. Though she doubts how much effect guns would have on the shadows.

Connor was there too. He had two somewhat large mirrors and one smaller one. He couldn't carry them all by himself so Murdock grabbed one of the larger ones while Emma grabbed the smaller one.

"What should we do?" Drew asked, looking panicked.

"We should teleport to the edge of the forest, that's the farthest we can go," Emma said.

"Yeah, but how long do you think that'll buy us?" Lynn questioned.

"Enough time for us to get more prepared," Emma said and quickly zapped everyone to the edge of the forest.

It was dark; they could barely see anything around them. The moon was there only source of light until Emma made some flashlights appear. She was thinking about getting some lanterns too but she then thought against it, seeing that it might attract the shadows.

Emma then turned to Connor. "You should get out of here. You're the only one who can leave the forest and get to safety."

Connor gave her a look then said, "No way, I'm not leaving you guys alone out here. Let me help."

Emma wanted to argue with him but she realized that it would be futile. He was a hunter; of course he wouldn't back down from a fight.

"Okay, so what now?" Murdock whispered. They were standing wide open in the forest, only armed with three mirrors. Who knew how many shadows were after them? And why were they after them in the first place? None of them were Demons.

Wait. Lynn was half Demon.

Fuck.

So now they knew what they wanted but they still didn't seem to stand that great of a chance against them. But they were safe for at least a little while, which was good. Emma glanced at her phone to see the time. 4:37 am. The sun wouldn't be coming up for another few hours. They would be able to see the shadows better during the day so it seemed best to wait for the sun to come up.

"We should set up some kind of a base camp here," Connor said before Emma could. "Some wood would be good to set up in a circle then we could hang the mirrors up on the sides of it."

Everyone nodded and Lynn made some wood appear. It was easy to put it together, with them being super powered and all and they even made a little roof for it. They set up the mirrors so that they could cover most of the sides as they could. Then they all huddled inside, not being able to stand since the roof was so low. They all had flashlights so they were able to see each other.

"So, we're waiting until the sun comes up?" Murdock asked with a yawn. Emma nodded then checked her phone again. It was 5:00 am. They had a least another hour.

"Why don't you guys get some sleep," Emma started as she looked at the others. They all still had bags under their eyes and were yawning. "I'll keep watch."

"Me too, I was on watch duty anyway," Connor said.

The others didn't seem to object. Lynn poofed up some pillows for them and soon they were fast asleep while Connor and Emma sat outside of their little fort.

Emma tried to suppress a yawn that rose in her but failed. Connor looked over at her, his blue eyes still shining in the pale moonlight. "You should get some sleep too."

Emma shook her head. "I don't want to."

Connor didn't object, so they stayed silent for a little while. The crickets chirped in the distance and Emma held the flashlight tight in her hand. She made sure that she would be able to grab a mirror quickly just in case the shadows did show up.

"You know, you make a pretty great leader," Connor spoke up, breaking the silence between them.

"Really?"

"Yeah, you were able to make all those good decisions even when you were under pressure. And you were able to keep everybody calm." Connor smiled at her. "Don't let anybody tell you that's you're not ready for anything."

Emma smiled back. Connor was really good at lifting her mood. He always knew the right things to say.

"Thanks for helping us out," Emma said, deciding to return the compliment. "You didn't have to stay."

"I know but what kind of person would I be if I just ditched you guys? You're my first friends in who knows how long and friends don't do that to one another."

Emma nodded. That's when she realized how close they were. Suddenly she remembered Exarp back on the porch steps all those nights ago…no, this wasn't going to happen again. It couldn't. Emma was done with love. It hurts too much and no matter what happens both of them end up getting hurt. Or worse, dead.

But something in the back of her mind told her to screw it, you only get one chance. Would she end up regretting not having anything more with Connor?

So that's what she did. She put all her others thoughts aside and just seized the moment. She grabbed Connor's jacket collars and pulled him into a deep kiss.

It didn't last very long but it was nice. And Connor looked a little taken aback by it too, his face a little flushed. "Whoa," was all he was able to say. The man with a million words suddenly had none.

"Uh, sorry," Emma stuttered, suddenly a little embarrassed.

"Are you kidding me? That was like kissing a famous person," Connor laughed. "Considering I'm a fan of the Supernatural books, I mean."

Emma laughed too. "I don't think Megan would've done that."

"Well, I'm glad that Emma did," he said then held her hand.

They sat in silence until the sun came up, his hand never leaving hers. It was nice but Emma couldn't help but feel a small pang of guilt. Like she was replacing Exarp. She wondered what he would say about this.

"We should wake up the others," she said, standing up and releasing her hand from his grip.

Connor nodded, turning off his flashlight, Emma doing the same.

They both headed inside the little fort and woke everyone up. In a few minutes they were all out and ready to fight.

"There are only three mirrors and five of us," Murdock pointed out as they gathered the mirrors in front of them.

Connor eyed one of the bigger mirrors; it looked like the bathroom mirror, and then shattered it with the butt of his shotgun.

"Dude, that's like a hundred years of bad luck right there," Murdock said, his face twisted in surprise.

"Eh," Connor said and shrugged. Everyone then picked up a shard.

"The shadows haven't approached us so they're probably waiting for us to come out and find them," Emma pointed out.

"Then we go find them," Lynn said, twirling the mirror shard in her hand.

"Ok, let's split up gang." Emma laughed at her own Scooby Doo reference. "One person stays here while two people go east and two people go west."

"I'll stay here and guard our ugly fort," Murdock said, posting himself in front of their indeed crappy fort.

"Drew and I will go west," Lynn said and Drew nodded in agreement.

"Okay then Connor and I will go east. Drew will you be alright, I mean…" Emma rubbed the back of her neck, trying not to sound like she was babying him.

"I'll be fine. I have Angel powers, remember?" He didn't sound too annoyed by what she had said.

"Great, then let's go," Connor said then they all went their separate ways.

"So, you think Lucifer is sending the shadows after you?" Connor said as they trekked their way through the forest.

"Probably. I mean, what are the odds that they would be both here and back at Chicago? And I had never even heard of shadows since Lucifer sent us on our little journey."

"Yeah," Connor said and they kept walking, keeping an eye out for shadows. The leaves would crunch underneath their feet as they walked and that reminded Emma that it was almost fall. Most of the trees had already started to change colors and it was starting to get a little colder out at night. She wondered what the date was.

Emma froze when she heard something that sounded like…laughing?

"You hear that?" she asked, looking over at Connor. He nodded, positioning himself ready for an attack.

They came at them fast, faster than the last time Emma had seen them. There were four, two coming at each of them. Emma held up her mirror shard at one of them then heard a screech. The shadow was starting to dissolve as it started to get stuck between the two planes of existence. She grinned, happy that it actually worked.

"You okay over there?" Emma heard Connor yell to her.

"Yeah," she called back over to him. The second shadow came racing after her and before she could get the mirror in front of her the shadow pushed her back and she landed hard against a tree. She let out a groan of pain, her back aching and it took her a few moments to get back to her feet. The shadow was now right in front of her, about to lunge its sharp dark hand at her, but Emma was faster. She held out the shard and in a matter of seconds the shadow was gone.

Emma let out a sigh of relief, happy that her two opponents were gone. But relief was replaced with terror as she heard a loud scream that came from Connor.

There was only one shadow left and that one shadow had its hand buried in Connor's lower back.

Emma, ignoring the fear that ran through her, quickly poofed over to the shadow and held the mirror up to it. It screeched as it disappeared.

Connor was now laying face first on the ground, cursing and letting out sobs. Emma was breathing heavily, the fear now unable to ignore. She then quickly ran over to him.

She could hear Connor's whimpered words as she huddled over him. He was repeating the same thing over and over again. "I can't feel my legs, I can't feel my legs, I can't feel my legs…"

Oh no, that's not good. Emma shook her head. She had to fix him. She looked down at the wound. It a bloody hole in Connor's lower back. The shadow must've broken Connor's spine, that's why he couldn't feel his legs.

"Don't worry, okay, I'll fix it, I can fix this," Emma said in a rush and put her hand on his wound. She then closed her eyes and took a deep breath. But when she opened them again the wound was still there.

It didn't work.

No, no, no, no, this couldn't be happening. It was like Exarp all over again. She couldn't save him and now she won't be able to save Connor. Why did this always happen?!

"I-I," Emma stuttered, unsure of how to tell him that she couldn't fix him.

"What, what's wrong?" Connor was actually able to sound somewhat calm, probably thinking that Emma was freaking out as well. Either that or he was just too stunned to sound any different.

"I-I can't fix it. Lucifer must be blocking my powers, oh my God, I'm so sorry Connor, I'm so sorry." Tears started to fill Emma's eyes and she stood up, unsure of what else to do. Her thoughts seemed to be blocked just like her powers. All she could do was think about how she was letting him down.

Connor was back to letting out sobs. He was in pain. Emma could barely look at him.

"You-You can't fix me?!" He said through a sob.

"I'm sorry, I can't, it didn't work-,"

"Then kill me!" Emma stared at him in disbelief. What did he just say? She took a few steps back so she could look him in the eyes. His nice blue eyes that were now red and wet with tears.

"What? No!" she said, stepping further away. This didn't sound like the Connor she knew. Then again, did she really know Connor at all?

"I can't live the life I live with no legs," he explained. "You have to kill me! Shoot me in the head! What can I do when I can't even walk?!"

Emma, without thinking, pulled out her gun from the small of her back.

"KILL ME!" He shouted one more time. Emma aimed the gun at his head.

No! What was she doing? She couldn't kill him, why was her gun even out in the first place? It must've been shock, just was just complying to him because she was in shock and so was he and no this couldn't happen. She lowered her gun.

"No, I'm not killing you! We have to get you to a hospital!" But how could she get him to a hospital when she couldn't even leave the forest? Connor must've already thought about that. He must've of thought of every possible solution to this problem and only came up with one. Connor was smart. That's why he wanted to die.

"Please, Emma-," was the last thing Emma heard before the world around her went white.


	13. Hey There Delilah

Chapter 13

**Hey There Delilah**

"CONNOR!" Emma screamed as she and the other three reappeared in a narrow alleyway. Tears were now streaming down her face as she kept picturing Connor lying down on the cold ground, slowly dying. Why couldn't she save him? Why couldn't she just save someone for once?!

She started to feel that horrible feeling of dread again, the feeling that she got after her dream. And sadness started to take over her, covering her in layers in layers of bricks that just wanted to make her hurt. Connor only wanted to help them and she was supposed to make sure he was safe. But she failed. Just like with Chief and just like with Exarp. The weight started to get too heavy.

Emma collapsed to her knees on the semi wet ground, sobbing into her hands. Everything hurt too much and too many thoughts were racing through Emma's head: how much of a failure she was, how many people counted on her, how she couldn't even keep herself together. Why did _she_ have to be the Earth's savior?

For a few minutes all she heard was herself crying, not a word from Drew or Murdock or Lynn. It made her feel sick because she was their leader and she wasn't supposed to be sobbing in front of them. She was supposed to stay strong for them. Connor was wrong; she was a horrible leader.

But then something happened that surprised Emma. Drew, shy and quiet Drew, crouched down next to her and wrapped her up in a big hug. Emma didn't object, she just cried quietly into Drew's shoulder as he held onto her tight.

"What happened?" Murdock finally asked after Emma seemed to calm down a bit, wiping the tears from her eyes with her sweatshirt sleeve.

Drew helped her stand up before she answered the warlock's question. "U-Uh a shadow got Connor." She was having trouble getting the words out. "He was paralyzed and bleeding and I couldn't heal him and now he's dying all alone in the forest."

Emma didn't look at their faces, not wanting to see their sad reactions. But she was glad that they didn't say anything about the situation, about her breakdown. It was probably because they all had had their own breakdowns at some point. They knew what it felt like. Though the thought didn't make Emma feel any better.

Emma jumped when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. What? Her phone? Who could possibly be calling her? She dug her phone out of her pocket and looked at the Caller ID. She didn't recognize the number. But she did see the time on her phone before answering. It said that it was 9 AM. Last she checked it was 6 AM. Lucifer must've made them appear wherever they were three hours later. Or they were in a different time zone. Though it didn't feel like they switched time zones.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Emma?" She froze. It was Connor. He was alive.

"Connor?" Everyone looked at her, surprised, and Emma turned around, for some reason wanting their conversation to be somewhat private.

"Yeah, it's me," he coughed. He sounded terrible.

"What happened? Are you okay? Where are you?" Emma asked in a rush.

"I'm at some hospital near where I live. I have no idea how I got here. One second I was dying on the forest floor then the next I was at the hospital. I thought that it might have been one of you guys," he explained.

Emma shook her head even though Connor couldn't see her. "No, it wasn't any of us."

"That's weird then," he coughed again.

"Are you okay?" He seemed to be avoiding the question.

"Well, I'm alive, that's good right?" He laughed a little, trying to ease the mood. "It's just…I'm paralyzed from the waist down."

Emma had a feeling that that would happen. Doctor's couldn't fix the paralysis he had when he was crying to her on the ground. At least they saved his life.

"I'm sorry," was all she was able to say.

"Not your fault."

"Feels like it."

"No, stop," Connor practically snapped at her. "Stop blaming yourself for everything that happens. News flash Emma, the Earth doesn't revolve around you."

Okay, that made her laugh.

"But in all seriousness," he continued. "I'm sorry for asking you to…you know, back there. I wasn't thinking straight."

"It's fine," she said, not wanting to think about it.

"I'm glad that you didn't listen to me."

"Me too." There was silence between them for a few moments before she asked, "Do you want us to come visit you?" That's when she realized that she was making an empty offer, since she probably couldn't leave the new area they were in.

"Nah, I'll be fine. Go save the world from the Devil." Emma could practically hear his smug smile from over the phone.

"Not sure if that's possible," she admitted.

"Yeah it is. Kick it in the ass." Emma smiled then they both hung up.

When she turned back around the other three were staring at her expectantly. "Is he alright?" Drew asked.

Emma nodded slightly. "He's alive, in a hospital. But he's paralyzed from the waist down."

"Oh," Was all any of them were able to say.

Drew sighed then picked his cane up from off the ground. It was always weird seeing him with a cane because Emma would always forget that he needed one. He could always hold up on his own and keep up with them.

Drew then shuffled out of the alley, as if he recognized the place. He turned around then called to them, "I know where we are."

The three looked at each other then joined Drew on the sidewalk. Cars passed by them every half a second and buildings towered over them in every direction. Emma had a feeling she knew where they were too.

"We're in New York City," Drew told them. It was weird that Lucifer sent them to a place so close to the last place they were at. Why was that?

"And my apartment is right down there," he added, pointing down to the right of the sidewalk.

"Really?" Lynn raised an eyebrow at him.

Drew nodded and, without waiting for the others, started to walk down to his old home.

The three quickly caught up to him, not as if it was hard, then walked in silence until they reached a building that looked almost identical to all the other buildings they had passed. Drew walked up the steps and through the door. The three followed him.

The lobby was small and old, the paint chipped and the roof spotted with water damage. There was an older man who sat at a desk next to the stairs. He smiled at Drew and asked, "Where ya been, son?"

"I've been staying at my aunt's place," he lied.

"Then where's your Mother?" The older man gave him a look.

"She took a vacation," he answered.

"Well, okay then. Good to see ya again." He tipped his hat over at Drew.

"You too, Jeremy," Drew smiled then walked over to the stairs.

"No elevator?" Murdock asked.

Drew shook his head. "Nope, sorry."

It was hard to think that Drew actually lived there. The place looked like it was about to be condemned. And it had no elevator; it must've been hell for Drew to walk up and down the flights of steps.

"What floor do you live on?" Emma asked.

"Ninth," he answered. Nine floors. Awesome.

As they walked up the stairs Emma's mind kept thinking back to Connor. Maybe they were in range of the hospital he was staying at? Probably not, knowing their luck.

But that got her thinking. How did Connor get transported to a hospital? It wasn't any of them. It couldn't have been Lucifer, could it? Why would he save his life? And how could Connor call her anyway? Emma hadn't been able to get any calls from the Winchesters and she hadn't been able to call them. What was going on?

Her train of thought ended once they got to the ninth floor. Drew looked a little tired but he must've been used to it. They walked down the hallway until Drew stopped in front of the door with the number 214 on it. Drew pulled a key out of his pocket to unlock the rusty door and lead them inside. Emma was the last to enter the apartment, her eyes catching on the door next to his. There was a pile of dead flowers resting on Drew's neighbor's doorstep. That was weird.

The apartment was small and matched the rest of the building. There was a small kitchen off to the side and there were two beds on the other side of the room. There was a small TV sat in front of the beds and a door off to the right that was probably the bathroom. Man, Emma had seen hotel rooms nicer than this.

"Well this is…cozy," Lynn said.

"No need to be polite, I know it's shit. But it's all my Mom could afford." Drew walked over to the counter and grabbed a piece of paper that had been sitting there. "I wasn't lying about my Mom being on vacation. When Castiel came to pick me up he suggested to her that she took one. He even sent her there himself."

"What's that say?" Murdock asked, peeking over the Nephilim's shoulder.

"My Mom left a note just in case I came back while she was gone," he explained. "It just says that's there's food in the fridge and stuff."

"I wonder why Lucifer sent us here," Emma said, deciding to get on task.

"Why does he send us anywhere? It's to mess with us," Lynn said as she flopped down on one of the bed.

"Do you think there are shadows here too?" Murdock asked, walking over towards Lynn.

"Probably," Lynn groaned.

"Ugh," Murdock sighed and flopped down the same way Lynn did on the other bed.

"Um, guys?" Everyone looked over at Drew. He looked antsy for some reason. "I'm gonna go out for a bit. There's food in the fridge apparently so help yourself. I won't be long."

Emma nodded. "Be careful. Call us if you're in any trouble."

"I'll be fine," he said then limped out the door.

"What's up with him?" Murdock asked, sitting up on the bed.

"I'm gonna go follow him," Emma said.

"What?" This time Lynn sat up too. "Why?"

"I don't trust whatever's out there. And Drew is…well you know. No one can take on a shadow by their selves."

"Pfft, fine. God, you're such a Mom," Lynn grinned slyly and she laid back down on the bed.

Emma shot her a glare before leaving the apartment. She walked down the nine flights of stairs and once she got back to the lobby she saw Drew leave out the front door. Why was he walking? He could teleport, why would he want to take the tedious job of walking with one functional leg?

"Ms. Crimson." Emma froze as she was opening the front door. She turned around to see Jeremy looking at her from the front desk. "From what I've learned as my time at the front desk is that Drew Copperfield can take care of himself."

Emma looked at him curiously. "But that doesn't mean he doesn't need help from time to time," Jeremy finished with a faint smile. "I would happily clip my wings for that boy."

Emma's eyes widened at that last comment. Jeremy was an Angel?

"Why do you look so surprised?" Jeremy laughed. "Now, go follow him."

She nodded at the older Angel then hurried out the door. Luckily Drew hadn't gotten too far so she was able to follow him from a safe distance.

They walked for about fifteen minutes before Drew crossed the street and walked over into the local cemetery. Why would he go to a cemetery?

Emma froze at the gate that Drew had just entered, looking at the two Angel statues that guarded the cemetery. She got that feeling of dread in her stomach again.

After a few moments she finally walked through the gate and into the small cemetery. She couldn't see Drew, probably because of all the little hills the cemetery was littered with. Emma kept walking until she reached the end of the cemetery, climbing the largest hill. That's when her heart seemed to stopped.

She saw Drew standing in front of a headstone, head hung low.

Now she knew why Drew came to the cemetery. The headstone read Delilah Thompson. He came to visit his girlfriend.

Emma suddenly thought back to the first night she met Drew and they were talking on the porch steps. He showed her a picture of Delilah, her beautiful golden hair and sparkling blue eyes, her pure white dress blown a little from the wind. She remembered how Drew looked like he was going to cry when Emma promised him that he would see his girlfriend again. It hurt her now to know that she was going back on the promise.

"We had been best friends since we were little." Drew turned his head to look at her. Emma walked up to stand next to him, looking down at the somewhat new headstone. The date read that she died only two months ago.

Drew looked back down at the headstone. "She lived in the apartment next door." Emma remembered the dead flowers at the doorstep. Now that made sense. "We would walk to school together. We would play soccer together. We would run errands together. We did everything together." He took a deep breath.

"Then one day I finally got up the nerve to ask her out. I was so happy when she said yes. She was the only thing I ever wanted. We had been dating for a year when it happened." Drew didn't look like he wanted to talk about it. His eyes were swelling up with tears and his knuckles were white from holding onto his cane so hard.

"We were walking home from school. She was wearing the necklace that I got her the day before for our one year anniversary. We were almost home when this guy came out from an alleyway. The one were appeared in, actually. He had pitch black eyes… and a knife. He pulled us into the alley, making sure the other people wouldn't see." Drew swallowed. "He was saying something about me being an abomination, how there shouldn't be any Angel kids on Earth. I had no idea what he was saying at the time. But I didn't care. I just needed to make sure that Delilah was okay. I hit him in the stomach and tried to grab Delilah and run but the Demon was too fast. He jumped in front of us again and lunged the knife at me. I thought I was a goner. But…but Delilah jumped in front of me. She died trying to save me."

Tears were falling down Drew's cheeks now and it was hard for Emma not to cry too. The story was all too familiar.

"I couldn't do anything, I was too stunned. The love of my life had just gotten stabbed right in front of me. That's when the Demon took out the Molotov and threw it at me, hitting my leg. I guess he figured it would be better for me to suffer. But before he could actually kill me someone stopped him. I couldn't see who, I was too focused on trying to stop the fire on my leg from spreading. I passed out after that."

Emma had a feeling she knew who saved him. Jeremy seemed to be a good guardian Angel.

"I'm sorry," Emma whispered. She couldn't seem to do more than that.

"It's my fault she's dead. If I wasn't who I am or if I had stopped the guy then maybe…maybe I could've saved her." More tears fell from his eyes. Emma held his hand to try to calm him down.

"It's not your fault." She said. Drew turned his head to look at her. "Things just…happen. Things that you can't stop. And you can't spend the rest of your life thinking about what could've happened, how you could've stopped it. You have to remember the good times that you had with her. You-You have to be grateful that you even had her. From the words of the great John Green: _It hurts because it mattered._" That's when Emma realized that she should take her own advice. She had been thinking the same thing as Drew in regards to Exarp. Maybe she needed to remember the good times she had with him, how little there were.

Drew was silent for a few minutes before he asked, "You can't bring her back, can you?"

Emma shook her head. "Sorry. Besides, if I could I don't think she would want to come back. Sometimes it's better for the dead to stay dead."

Drew nodded. They didn't say anything else after that, they just held hands in silence for what seemed like forever, the both of them trying to get over something that they couldn't control. Something they both finally learned to get over, no matter how much it hurt.


	14. Falling's Not the Problem

Chapter 14

**Falling's Not the Problem**

Emma and Drew started the walk home in silence, moving around people and watching the cars pass. They were silent for a while, both of them taking in everything that happened at the graveyard. Sadness was a heavy weight. But when Emma stuck her hands into her pockets she remembered something.

"Oh, I forgot to give you this," she said, pulling the gold coin that Gabe had given her out of her pocket. "It was your Dad's." Emma handed it over to Drew.

Drew took it hesitantly. Once he had it in his hands he smoothed the sides over with his fingers, tracing each and every curve and groove the coin had to offer. "I was captain of the soccer team, you know."

Well that was a little random. "But then everything…happened and I had to stop playing. I wanted to be a doctor too. I had my whole life planned out and now it's just…gone."

Emma thought back to her normal days, before everything happened to her. At that point in her life she never really thought about her future. She never really wanted to. Because the future is a scary thought. Growing up is a scary thought. And who wants to do that?

"That might not be entirely true." Emma grinned a little over at Drew. "You could still go finish school. You could go to college. You could become a doctor. The only thing holding you back is you."

Drew looked over at her in confusion. "But what about all this Angel stuff?"

"It will pass, if we make it out alive. But when it's all over you could go back to a normal life."

"I thought that all of that normal life stuff would put people in danger? And myself in danger too?" Drew had to swerve quickly so he didn't ram into a pole.

"Well, yeah, there's still the danger but you could live with it. You see, with me I have this whole destiny and a job of having to save the world. Hunters live their life like that because there job is dangerous. You aren't a hunter or a chosen one. You're just a kid with super powers. And you have a very nice guardian Angel watching over you," Emma explained, kicking a pebble.

"Guardian Angel?" Drew raised an eyebrow.

"Come on; don't tell me you haven't figured it out." Emma watched as Drew's confused face suddenly turned to realization.

"Jeremy," he sighed. Emma nodded.

"He's the one who saved you that day," she told him.

Drew smiled but stayed silent.

When they got back to the apartment, after Drew said a quick and quiet thank you to Jeremy, they saw Murdock and Lynn playing a game of cards on the bed.

"How was the walk?" Lynn asked. "Got any Kings?"

Murdock shook his head. "Go fishing."

"It's not go _fishing_, it's go _fish_, how many times do I have to tell you?" Lynn scowled at the warlock.

"Hey, I've never played this game before!" Emma and Drew laughed at the two.

"You guys want lunch? I could order Chinese," Drew offered.

"Oh, yes please!" Lynn said, throwing the rest of her cards down on the bed, obviously fed up with the game and the warlock playing it.

That's when everything froze. It was like time froze. Only Emma could move. What was going on?

"Hello." The voice sent a shiver down Emma's spin. She turned reluctantly to see an evil grinning Lucifer.

"What do you want?" she growled.

"Just wanted to pop in to give you a heads up. You have some unpleasant news coming your way."

"What is it?" Emma asked.

"Oh, you'll find out soon enough," Lucifer said.

"Why did you send us here, to all these places? What's your plan?" Emma persisted. This may be the only time she would be able to ask that question.

"Ugh, you and your questions. Again, you'll find out later." And with a snap of his fingers everything was zapped back into motion, everyone unfreezing and acting like nothing happened.

Emma's phone rang when Drew started ordering the food. "Hello?" she asked as she put her phone up to her ear. Everyone looked over at her, surprised by the sudden call. Emma hoped it was Connor.

"Emma?" It was Dean. How could he call her?

"Dean?"

"Yeah, it's me. Listen I have some bad news to tell you." He sounded sad. That can't be good.

"W-What is it?" she asked hesitantly.

The other end was silent for a while until Dean finally croaked out, "Gabe is dead."

Emma stopped breathing for a few seconds as she had just gotten the wind knocked out of her. Gabe was dead?

"Listen, I'm sorry, and I don't know where you are but if you are able to get back to the safe house, we have something he wanted to give y-," The call cut out.

Emma dropped the phone. She couldn't move. She didn't want to.

"Emma? What's wrong," Drew hung up and walked over towards her.

She didn't answer. Instead she vanished to the roof of the apartment building. She didn't want the others to see her cry twice in one day.

A million questions started to run through her head. What happened? Who-How-Why?! She had a feeling it was Lucifer since he was the one to tell her that she was getting bad news right before she got the phone call.

Tears started streaming down her face as she kept thinking about it. Why was everything so bad happening all at once?! Why did this have to happen to HER?!

Emma collapsed onto her knees, crying, just barley holding it together. This was her fault. Lucifer wanted to hurt her. So he killed one of her closest friends. They shared the same grace for fucks sake.

What made it worse was that Emma couldn't even remember the last thing she said to him. What was it? It felt like a million years ago since they had last talked. Gabe had been so distant after she changed to Emma. He looked so distracted and uninterested in everything. Emma should've talked to him more during that time, she thought. Maybe he wouldn't have picked a fight with the Devil.

Emma noticed the horseman's rings loosely dangling around her neck. In a fit she ripped the ring necklace off her neck and threw it across the roof. She didn't need it anymore.

And now this is was it…Gabe was just gone. Forever. He's not coming back this time, she could feel it. He had always been there for her and now when she needed him most he went and got himself killed.

Emma thought back to when she first met Gabriel. Back in her High School cafeteria, zapping her and the Winchesters away and getting rid of the Demon she recently learned had been Chief. Oh yeah, he's dead too.

Gabe had been the only one who understood her at the time, understood that she wanted some freedom, and understood how she needed a friend and not a teacher.

_Goodbye Grace Buddy._

Emma stood up weak kneed, still crying silently. Everything hurt too much. Every single thing _ached_ and oh god she wanted it to end.

So she walked over to the edge of the roof, stepping up on the ledge. She remembered back to when she first died, how free and pure she felt. She could go to Heaven where she would be happy. She could leave this horrible world behind. All it took was one jump.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Emma turned around quickly, teetering a little, to see Lynn staring at her wide eyed.

"I-I," she sniffed, already hating herself for what she almost did. But she still couldn't move down from the ledge.

Lynn, at first looking mad, now looked sad and worried. The Hybrid quickly ran over to Emma and pulled her down off the ledge carefully. "What's wrong? Were you going to kill yourself?"

"I don't know," Emma said quickly. "I just can't do this anymore."

"What did Dean say?" Oh yeah, she heard her talking to Dean.

Emma could barely get the words out. "Gabriel, the Archangel, is dead."

Lynn's eyes widened as if she knew him. "H-He is?" Her green eyes suddenly seemed shinier, like she was about to cry.

Emma nodded, still holding onto Lynn's arm as if she would collapse again. "You knew him?" God, she hated using the past tense.

Lynn nodded.

"How did you know him?" Why was she still talking about this? It was like the more questions she asked about him the more she would know about him. Like he was still alive. She needed the questions to hold on to him.

Lynn laughed sadly, "He's my Uncle, of course I knew him."

Emma laughed a little too, wiping tears from her eyes. "Yeah, forgot that you were Lucy's kid."

"You know, I don't really like my father."

"Never said you did," Emma told her.

"Good. It just seems like you're always on my case now ever since I told you who I was. I don't want that. I want to be your friend," Lynn said, looking down at the ground.

"Really? Oh, then I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was doing that. I want to be your friend too," Emma said.

"Well, that's good," Lynn swallowed, as if holding back something. "How-How did you know Gabe? I mean, he kind of lived with you guys but I don't know the whole story…"

"He gave me part of his grace so I could be the chosen one," Emma explained quickly.

"Gabe giving up part of his grace?" Lynn laughed. "Never thought he would do something like that."

Emma nodded and laughed.

"How about we go downstairs and wait for the Chinese food to arrive, okay?" Lynn suggested. Emma nodded in agreement.

"And for now on you are not allowed near any roofs, okay?" She added.

Emma was silent for a moment, wondering why she even got up on the ledge anyway. If she had jumped before Lynn got there then she would've missed out on this new friendship that was blooming. She would have missed out on kicking Lucifer's ass or seeing Connor again or save the world. And anyway, Gabe wouldn't want her to be dead.

"Okay."


	15. Murdock, the Free Warlock

Chapter 15

**Murdock, the Free Warlock**

They had been at Drew's apartment for a week now. Not much has happened. Mostly Emma sulked around the small apartment. The others did as well but Emma hardly ever moved. The others would ask her if she wanted to go out for dinner and she would always decline. Gabe's death was pretty hard on her.

It started to worry Murdock. He knew death was hard on a person, considering he lost his parents at a very young age. He doesn't even have a picture of them. But now didn't seem like a good time to do nothing. Lucifer was out there, shadows were out there; they had to do something! Heroes aren't supposed to mope around when they are called to duty! You fight through the pain so you can lead everyone to victory!

But when he told Lynn that she shot him down. She said that Emma needed time to recover, not to "go into battle" (she actually put air quotes around those words) depressed and suicidal.

So instead of actually doing something productive the gang just moped around and ate Chinese food and ice cream. Murdock secretly hoped for a shadow attack but unfortunately none of those vile creatures did.

That night, while Murdock was trying to sleep (since there were only two beds he had to share a bed with Drew) he took the time to think back to everything they had done already. If they weren't being productive then he might as well think about all the productive stuff they've done already. He suddenly remembered back to when his life changed and he finally got his freedom…

It was a sunny summer afternoon when it happened. Well, he wasn't exactly sure if it was sunny, the tinted windows denying evidence of his observation, but Weather Bug was able to confirm it.

Murdock Leroy, Heir of Merlin, was sitting down on his nice leather couch with a bowl of Fruit Loops, watching the first Harry Potter movie. This was probably the…tenth (?) time he had watched the movie but he didn't care. The movie had always filled him up with hope. Because the wizards in the Harry Potter world seemed like a nice community of people. Unlike the Warlocks that were in his world.

Murdock liked to imagine Hagrid, much like in the scene he was watching at that moment, knocking down the door of his mansion, breaking passed the force field, to tell him that he was going to go to Hogwarts.

He nearly choked on his cereal when he heard a knock at the door.

No one ever, ever, _ever_ knocked on the door. No one ever came to visit him; no one ever even approached the mansion to try to sell him something. Who could possibly be knocking on his door? A small part inside him hoped it was Hagrid.

After putting down his cereal and cautiously walking over to the door, Murdock looked through the peep hole, his glasses pressed up against it. Through it he saw a man, probably in his thirties, wearing a trench coat and a stoic expression.

Should he open the door? Hell yeah he should. Like he said, THIS NEVER HAPPENS.

"Murdock Leroy?" The man asked when Murdock opened the door, rays of light trying to hit his face. When he says _trying_ he means that the force field was blocking any warmth that the sun might give off. He's never actually felt any weather from outside. Only being able to see at times when he can open the door. Which he doesn't like to do too often because it makes him seem like his freedom is within reach when in reality it's not. At least this confirms his observation about the sunny day.

Murdock nodded at the man. "Yes?"

"I need your help." Help? This man needed _his _help?

"Who are you?" he asked, looking into the man's deep blue eyes. Something seemed off about him.

"My name is Castiel. I'm an Angel of the Lord." Murdock's grey eyes widened in surprised. An Angel? He had read about Angels before but actually meeting one? This was insane.

"R-Really?" Castiel nodded and _stepped into the house._ He was able to walk through the force field! He had to be an Angel!

"Yes, really," he said again in his gravelly voice. "And you are the Heir of Merlin. Quite impressive."

"Yeah, I know," Murdock laughed nervously then cleared his throat. "You said you needed my help?"

"Correct. You know of Lucifer?" Murdock nodded. Duh, of course he knew Lucifer. Warlocks who practice dark magic often look to him for guidance. Good thing he didn't practice dark magic. Okay, one time, AND HE JUST WANTED A PET FROG OKAY.

"He has been let out of his cage again," Castiel informed, fear now taking over his expressionless face.

"And you want me to stop him?" This wasn't exactly what he was hoping for.

"Yes but not by yourself. I'm assembling a team of sorts, a team of powerful people," he started. "And I want you to join."

"Well, sign me up Nick Fury, because I'm in!" Murdock smiled. This was his chance to be a real life hero! He could save the world! He could have friends!

"Thank you," Castiel said. "Your enthusiasm is much appreciated. But I expect you to understand the danger that comes with helping us."

Murdock nodded. Danger smanger. Danger was his middle name.

"Wait, if I'm coming with you to help, does that mean you can get me passed the force field?"

"Yes of course. I'm an Angel, remember?" Murdock wasn't sure but he thought he saw a small grin on the Angel's face.

"This is the best day ever," Murdock exclaimed.

"We should get going, The Chosen One is going to need your help very soon and I need to go and collect the others," Castiel told him, heading off towards the door.

"The Chosen One? I'm going to meet _The Chosen One_?!" Murdock had read about her many times in his old books and he had to admit he was a bit of a fanboy.

This time the Angel smiled clearly. "Of course. Now, gather any belongings you might want to take with you."

Murdock bit his lip and looked around. He didn't own much. Just some things that he was able to zap into existence. But maybe one thing, if he was going to be a hero…

Castiel led Murdock outside after he got what he wanted. The fabric itched a little against his neck but the feeling of actual wind blowing his Superman cape behind him was the best feeling in the world. He felt like a hero. He felt free.

"Are you ready?" Castiel asked as he looked at Murdock's smiling face.

Murdock nodded and in second they reappeared in a forest in front of a house. "This is where she lives?"

"Yes. And her name is Emma," Castiel clarified. The Angel started walking towards the house but Murdock stayed where he was. Realization just hit him that this was the first time he was ever away from his house, let alone _outside._ It was amazing.

"Coming?" Castiel asked, turning around to look at him.

"I was, uh, hoping to make an entrance," Murdock said, gripping the sides of his cape nervously.

"If you wish," he said and made his way through the door.

Murdock waited there for a while, letting the sun be soaked into his pale skin, letting the noises of bugs fill his ears. It was a memory he would never forget.

He figured that it was about time to make his entrance. He had this idea that he would appear in a zap of lightning and create some wind so his cape could blow behind him again. But after taking a second look at his cape, the one he made when he was younger, he decided against it. The cape was meant for the little boy running around the mansions halls with only laughter in his voice and a dream in his head. It was time to leave the past behind.

So he took off his cape and folded it enough so it could fit in his back pocket. Murdock smiled then disappeared in a flash of purple lightning.


	16. Lynn, the Protected Hybrid

Chapter 16

**Lynn, the Protected Hybrid**

The last week was depressing as hell. Gabe's death gnawed at Lynn no matter how much she tried to not think about it. She tried to suck it up and be strong for Emma who obviously had a better friendship with Gabe then she ever did but her mask shortly fell off when she started have flashbacks of memories with her and her uncle.

Death sucked. That's what she knew. Everyone always dies and it sucks. She should've done something…something to stop it but of course she was always preoccupied with something else.

It got her to thinking about who would die next. A named popped into her head, one that would cause her the most grief if they were to die. Castiel.

She missed him. She didn't even talk to him that much when they were staying at Emma's safe house. But she did remember the day Cas came to ask her to join the gang…

-BNW-

It was a lazy summer afternoon and Lynn was exhausted. She had gone on nonstop hunts for the past few weeks, one after another after another. One time she was up against a whole pack of Demons. Damn, that was a close one.

Now she was nestled up against Jackson, her Demon bodyguard, on the couch with a glass of wine. They were watching Inception (she needed a Leo fix) when the familiar sound of wings flapping made her divert her attention away from the TV.

It was Castiel. She hadn't seen Castiel in months and even when he did show up it wasn't for long. He was always saying something about having to protect a girl, that it was his job as protector, blah, blah, blah.

"Lynn," Castiel nodded over to the Hybrid.

"Cas," Lynn nodded back. "Would it kill you to call?"

"No, I don't believe it would." Lynn rolled her eyes and laughed. Even though she was somewhat annoyed at the Angel his adorable innocence never failed to make her laugh. "I am sorry though, I've been busy. And you probably already know the bad news."

"What bad news?" she raised an eyebrow at Castiel as she set her glass down on the coffee table.

"Oh, my apologies, I thought you would already know. But Lucifer…he's back," Castiel said that last part in almost a whisper.

No. No, no, no, no, no, no. This-This was not good. Definitely not good. Daddy Devil was back. How? Why? Ugh, things just kept getting worse.

"What?!" was all Lynn was able to say.

"An Angel got ahold of the Horseman Rings and set him free," Castiel explained.

Lynn stood up, furious. "Who?!" she shouted. She wanted to rip that Angel's throat out.

"The Angel of Fire, Oro. But you don't have to worry about him, your father killed him."

Even though she was happy that the son of a bitch Angel was dead her anger did not subside.

"So, what do we do then? What does he want?" Lynn crossed her arms over her chest. Jackson now stood up, sensing her anger, and stood close to her.

"We don't know what he wants but we need to be prepared for anything." Cas looked worried, more worried than Lynn had seen him in a while. "That's why I need you to come with me."

Jackson asked before Lynn could," What do you need her for?"

"I'm gathering powerful people to create a sort of response team to be prepared for whatever Lucifer plans to do." Castiel shifted awkwardly in his spot as if he still had something to say but was holding it back.

"Who else is going to be in this team? That girl you're always protecting?" That came out sharper than she meant it to.

Cas shot her a look. "Yes," was all he said.

"Who is she anyway?" she asked and Jackson moved closer to her, sensing her tenseness.

"She is the Chosen One, the one who protects God and now the Earth. You should know the story of her," he nodded over towards Jackson.

Jackson nodded, eyes a bit wider. "Yes, I do, everyone does."

Lynn coughed, turning the Demons attention to her. "Uh, I don't."

"Jackson will fill you in later," Castiel cut in. "I still have to talk to the other people I want to recruit so if I could have your answer-,"

"No," Jackson said immediately.

"What?" Lynn asked angrily at her Demon.

"This is all way too dangerous, especially if the Chosen One is involved." Jackson held her hand protectively. Lynn pulled her hand away, angry at him for deciding what she could or could not do.

"This is my decision not yours. I want to stop Lucifer, I want to help!" Lynn stepped away from Jackson a bit.

"You can come if you still want to protect her," Castiel offered.

Jackson looked between Castiel and Lynn for a moment in silence. "Well, there's no stopping you I see. Go without me."

Lynn was a little freaked out now. Jackson went everywhere with her and the time he says something is too dangerous he doesn't want to come with her?

"You-You don't want to come?" Lynn asked, her anger dissipating.

"No, obviously you're already well protected," he glanced over at Castiel.

"Okay then," Lynn surrendered. The three stood in awkward silence for a moment before Cas spoke up.

"Come by this address when you're ready, you might be at our safe house for a while." Castiel handed her a slip of paper with an address written on it. "It would be nice if Jackson told you everything about Emma."

"Emma? I thought her name was-," Castiel's glare cut the Demon off.

The Angel nodded. "See you soon," he said then vanished in a guest of wind.

"So, what was that all about?" Lynn asked as Jackson sat back down on the couch, Inception still playing on the TV.

"What was what about?" he feigned innocence.

"You know what I'm talking about. You go _everywhere_ I go." Lynn stared down at him, still standing up and suddenly craving the rest of her wine.

"I'm pretty sure you would rather have Castiel protect you," he half mumbled.

"Oh, so that's what this is about? _Jealousy_?" Lynn couldn't believe this. Satan was back and Jackson was worried about getting cockblocked by an Angel!

Jackson stayed silent. "Listen, I'm not going with Cas because I have feelings for him, I'm going because he needs help, the _world_ needs help from my Devil Dad!"

Jackson sighed. "Sorry, yeah, I know that…"

"Okay then," Lynn flopped back down next to him on the couch, grabbing her glass of wine.

"But I'm still not coming."

Lynn stopped mid sip to glare at him. "What? Still?"

Jackson shrugged. "I'm not always going to be with you so I might as well let you do things by yourself. If you're ever in any trouble call me and I'll come."

Lynn downed the rest of her wine and nodded. "Fine," though she still wasn't convinced that the reason wasn't jealousy.

"So, I guess I'll tell you about Emma…"

-BNW-

Lynn wondered how Jackson was doing, if he was freaking out or not. Or if he even knew that her Dad was sending her on a little field trip from Hell. She wanted to call him, to tell him she was okay, to talk to him about Gabe.

She wished she had begged him to come with her.


	17. Drew, the Not So Helpless Nephilim

A/N: Just so people aren't confused; this chapter is split in two. The first part involves Drew and his flashback. The second part is present day with Dean and the gang at the safe house. Hope you enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 17

**Drew, the Not So Helpless Nephilim **

Drew didn't like all the sadness that was filling the air of the apartment. Every day he had to leave to get some sort of fresh air but he would always end up going to Delilah's grave. It just made him even sadder.

His leg hurt a lot lately too. Maybe it was because of all the stress. Drew didn't know. Instead he would stay quiet throughout the day, wondering if anything would happen.

One night of that long week Drew lay in bed next to a snoring Murdock. He guessed that no one could tell the warlock that he had a horrible snoring problem when he was all alone in that mansion. Drew sighed; guess he wasn't going to get any sleep.

He missed his Mom. If she were their then everything would seem better. She was always great that way, making horrible things seem like good things in disguise. His thoughts drifted back to when Cas first came…

-BNW-

Drew had just come home from picking up the pizza he ordered to find that his Mom was home early. She wasn't due back from work for another three hours. She was standing in the middle of the apartment looking nervous, as if she wanted to tell him something.

"Mom? What's wrong?" he asked, setting the pizza box down on the counter. She looked like she had been when she told Drew about who he really was; who his father was. That was almost two months ago after...after the incident.

"Um," she pursed her lips together. "This man, uh, I mean, there's an Angel here to talk to you Drew."

Drew's eyes widened. An Angel? Like his Dad? What did he want?

Then out from the kitchen came the Angel. He didn't look like an Angel. He looked like a regular dude coming home from work.

"Drew Copperfield, it's nice to finally meet you. My name is Castiel, I'm an Angel of the Lord," Castiel introduced, nodding to him.

"Uh, hi," Drew greeted back. How do you greet an Angel?

"Well, I'll leave you boys to talk," his Mom said but just before she could leave Castiel stopped her.

"No, I would rather you stay here to discuss this matter with us," he said.

His Mom laughed a little. "I'm not sure I'm important enough to discuss this."

Castiel smiled. "Trust me; you're just as important as any of us."

She smiled a little and nodded.

"What do you want to talk to me about?" Drew gripped his cane tight. He was worried. What did this Angel want with him? What if he was mad at him like the Demon that attacked him, thought that he was an abomination? Drew braced himself for the worst.

"We need your help." Well, that certainly wasn't what he was expecting.

"Help with what?" he asked, relaxing his grip on his cane.

The Angel let out a sigh. "It's a long story but…Lucifer, the Devil, has been brought back to the world again. I'm assembling a team of powerful people to help stop him from destroying the world."

Oh my God he couldn't be serious. Lucifer? Really? No, that was insane…but then again he never thought that he would be the kid of an Angel and that turned out to be true.

"Listen, I don't really think that I'm cut out for the job. I mean, look at me," Drew gestured to his leg. "I can barely walk."

"But Nephilim are just as powerful, even more so, than Angels. I need your help. The world needs your help," Castiel pressed.

Drew stayed silent. This Angel was practically begging for his help. He must be desperate. And how would he be able to help anyway? Poke Lucifer with his cane until he surrendered? And he couldn't just leave his Mom all alone.

"And don't worry about your Mother, she will be safe," Castiel said, as if reading his thoughts.

"You're agreeing to this? You're just gonna let me risk me life out there?" Drew asked his Mom.

"Honey," she said and walked over to him. "I think you're strong enough for this. Your Father told me that when it came to you anything was possible. You need this. You can't just keep moping around the apartment for your entire life. This is what you were born to do. And I get a free vacation out of it," they both laughed.

Maybe she was right; maybe he did need to do something. Not just for his self but for his Mom and Delilah. She may be gone but she would want him to do what's right.

"Okay, I'll go," he said.

Castiel nodded. "Thank you. I'll give you some time to say good bye."

Drew looked at his Mother with worried eyes. "Don't worry Drew; I'm going to be okay. Just call me every once in a while to let me know if you're okay."

Drew nodded, feeling tears well up in his eyes. What if this was the last time he would see her? No, he couldn't let that happen. He would live to make sure he saw her again.

"I love you," he said and wrapped his arms around his Mother.

"I love you too, sweetie," she whispered back, smoothing down his hair.

"I'll save the world, just you see…"

-BNW-

"Has anyone seen Cas?" Dean asked the group in the living room. Everyone shook their heads, even Luna who had just recently appeared and was helping Sam was something.

Dean shook his head in frustration. They had gotten nowhere on the finding Lucifer front and the last time he talked to Emma was when he told her that Gabe was dead. If only the phone call had lasted a little longer then maybe they would've found out where the kids were.

"I'm right here Dean," he turned around to see a recently appeared Cas. He looked bad. His usually bright blue eyes were dull and his smile looked faked.

"What's wrong?" Dean asked.

"Nothing, I've just been thinking some things over. I-I think I have a plan to stop Lucifer," the Angel said, not looking at Dean directly. Something was up. At this point everyone else was now listening to their conversation.

"Well, that's great. What is it?" he asked.

Castiel was silent for a few moments. "It's something I have to do by myself. I'm sorry it's just too big of a risk to involve any of you."

Dean raised an eyebrow at him. "What the hell does that supposed to mean? Cas, you know we're up for anything."

He shook his head. "No, I'm the one who has to do this."

Dean couldn't believe this. After all they've been through Cas wouldn't let them help? And if it was that dangerous then why was he doing it? Dean didn't want to watch his best friend die.

"At least tell us what you're doing," Dean pressed.

"No, I can't…" he said, barley auditable.

"Cas, whatever you're about to do, don't do it," Dean said. He knew that look on his face. It was the look like he was about to do something crazy.

"I'm sorry," he said before he disappeared.

"Dammit Cas!" Dean yelled. He didn't like this one bit. And hell if he was going to lose anyone else.


	18. Flare

Chapter 18

**Flare**

Emma decided to punch sadness in the face. She did nothing for an entire week, just lying around being sad, which probably made her friends feel sad too. That made her feel even worse about not doing anything. Even though she still felt like shit she knew that they still needed to get work done.

So the next morning she woke everyone up, ready to do something productive. It surprised the three to see Emma so quickly recovered but they didn't question a good thing. In fact Emma was surprised herself.

Emma thought that maybe she just wanted to feel good again or let her anger out on a bunch of shadows. Maybe it was both.

"So, what do we do? I mean, it's been a week and nothing has attacked us," Drew pointed out, having a little trouble getting his shoe on.

Emma turned to Lynn. "Got any ideas on why your Dad brought us here?"

Lynn rolled her eyes. "Like I said before he's probably just fucking with us."

Murdock nodded in agreement. "Maybe we have to go find something to fight? If nothing's coming to get us then maybe they're waiting for us to get them."

"I don't know, those shadows don't really seem like the waiting type," Emma said, crossing her arms.

Drew straightened himself on the chair he was sat on, one shoe on and one shoe half on, and started saying, "What if-," before a familiar white light flashed around them.

They appeared in a forest. It was dark and surprisingly warm considering it was starting to become colder at night because of the oncoming fall. Drew promptly fell to the ground on arrival since he had been sitting on a chair, his cane falling down next to him as well.

"Ow!" he exclaimed then pulled the rest of his shoe on, tied it and stood up with his cane. "Would it kill Lucifer to warn us when he's gonna do that!?"

"Shh!" Emma hushed him. "I hear voices over there." She pointed to behind her where she could hear what sounded like two people talking.

Emma nodded for them to follow her over to the voices. As they started walking she felt like she knew where they were. It all seemed too familiar.

She stopped walking when she saw a house. Not just any house; her house. The safe house. Why did Lucifer send her back home?

"What's wrong?" Lynn whispered to her.

"It's-," she was going to finish her sentence but something stopped her. She could hear the voices clearer now.

"I'm asking what's on your mind," the voice said.

"Oh," the other voice said. "It's just…nothing."

That-that sounded like- no it couldn't be. It just couldn't be.

"Emma?" Murdock looked over at her with worry. Emma ignored them and dodged behind a bush so she could get a look at the two. The others followed, curious.

As Emma peered through the bushes her heart stopped. She was right. The conversation was all too familiar. There, sitting on the steps of the front deck, was Megan and Exarp. It was the night Lucifer first appeared to her. The night after she got shot; she could see some of the bandages peeking out of Megan's shirt. It was the night her and Exarp almost kissed. Lucifer sent them back in time to this moment, but why?

Her eyes were focused on Exarp. Of course he would send them here just when she was starting to get over him. Tears started to fill her eyes. She wasn't sure whether to feel happy or sad about this.

"Who are they?" Murdock asked.

Emma swallowed. She thought back to what Connor had said (Oh God, what if Exarp had found out about Connor), that she was being a hypocrite for not telling the gang about who she used to be. Maybe it was time to tell them the truth.

"That's me."

Everyone stared at her. "What?" they all whispered in unison but Emma didn't answer back. She was too focused on Megan and Exarp. She would explain later.

She focused back on the conversation. "…I never even wanted to be a part of The Powers," Exarp said. Emma remembered replaying the conversation over and over in her head after it had happened. When she was trying to sort out her feelings for him.

"Emma, what the hell is going on?" Lynn hissed into her ear. Emma scowled and turned around to look at them.

"Lucifer sent us back in time," she told them. "This was back when I was Megan. I had a conversation with an Angel this night. It's summer so we're only about a month or two in the past."

"Okay, but what do you mean back when you were Megan?" Drew asked.

"It's a long story," she sighed. "But when I was Megan I got stabbed, I was going to die, but these magical tablets were able to save my life. But even though it saved me it changed me completely. Okay?"

Everyone stared at her wide eyed. That wasn't exactly how she wanted to tell them. But she was too annoyed about the whole situation they were in. She turned back to the conversation.

"…That explains why you aren't as much of a drone as the other Angels. You know the benefit of human emotion," Megan said.

"Then Oro and Luna came to talk to me about joining The Powers…" It was getting harder to focus on the conversation. Emma kept wondering something…maybe she could warn him? Tell him not to go to Libra's palace with them, to not jump in front of the dagger. But she knew she couldn't, she knew the rules of time travel. But maybe…

The conversation kept going on, whether she was paying attention to it or not. She heard the three behind her whisper something to each other then someone prodded Emma's shoulder.

"What?" she snapped.

"I know you're enjoying this little blast from the past but we have a problem," Lynn whispered nodding over to the right. "Daddy Devil's here."

Fuck. Of course. Emma sighed and took one last look at the two. The last thing she heard was Megan saying, "Uh, my shoulder was hurting and it woke me up," before Lynn dragged her away making her rustle the bush a little too loudly.

As she was running after the other three through the forest she remembered something. When she saw the flash of red in the small silence of the conversation. She thought it was a fox but it was actually her! Mother fucking time travel.

The three stopped when they saw Lucifer standing in front of him, his arms folded behind him. Emma wanted to kill him right then.

"You killed Gabriel you son of a bitch!" she yelled, slamming her fist into the tree next to her, making a large branch fall. Realization dawned on her again. The reason why she didn't kiss Exarp this night. The sound of a branch falling made them both jump. She was the reason why she didn't kiss him. Awkward.

She quickly shook off the weird time travel thoughts and started to charge after Lucifer but Lynn and Murdock held her back.

"I did what had to be done," Lucifer said, holding his hands up in a mock surrender.

Emma was about to yell some more obscenities at him but Lynn cut her off. "Why are we here? Why are we back in time?"

"I needed you a bit more out of the way then you already were. I need to let some important things happen and I can't let you interfere with them," he explained.

"So that's why you're sending us on this fucked up field trip?" Lynn asked, a wild look in her eye. She was probably just as mad at him as Emma was.

"That's one of the reasons. Now I do have to go, like I said there are some important things I have to attend to. And Emma, enjoy this little treat," he said then vanished.

Murdock and Lynn released Emma. Treat? This was a treat? Seeing Exarp again, it seemed to hurt her more. But maybe Lucifer was giving her another chance to fix things?

After a few seconds she knew what she wanted to do and started sprinting back towards the safe house. The three followed her, she had no idea how Drew was keeping up, but she kept running until she was back at the bush. She saw Exarp standing there on the front deck; Megan had already zapped back to her room. She thought that he had disappeared too?

"I know you're there," he said, looking in her direction.

Emma swallowed. Could she really do this? Could she really talk to Exarp, let alone save his life?

She stepped out of the bush and walked over to Exarp who was walking down the deck steps. She stood in front of him. It took all her will not to cry.

"Who are you and why are you spying on us?" he demanded.

The words were caught in her throat. She quickly glanced back at the bush where her three friends were waiting and watching.

"I, I-," she started but Exarp was now looking at something.

"That's my," he barley said, "That's my Grace, how do you have my Grace?"

Emma raised an eyebrow then looked around her neck. Oh yeah, she was still wearing the crystal that held Exarp's Grace. She had never taken it off.

Emma wasn't sure what to say. She was thinking of just saying something ominous about not going to Libra's palace but it had already clicked for Exarp.

"…Megan?" Emma was silent for a moment then nodded. It was getting harder to hold back the tears.

"This was the tablet's doing, that's obvious. And there's a different energy around you so obviously time travel has been involved but," he swallowed hard.

"I'm sorry," was all she was able to get out.

Exarp grabbed her shoulders, not harshly but almost urgently like he wouldn't get another chance. And it was true, he wouldn't.

"What happened?"

"At Libra's palace," she started, tears starting to stream down her face but she couldn't stop looking at him. "We were fighting her and she was running at me with a dagger and you, you jumped in front of it-,"

"No, not how I died, I don't care about that," he said and Emma looked at him shocked. "Were you hurt?"

Emma was silent. He cared more about her than himself. She felt warmth flow through her at the thought of that. "I got stabbed. The tablets were able to heal me but they changed me to…this." She didn't want to tell him that she changed her name or that some of her personality was changed too. She didn't want to warp any more of his perception of her.

"By who?" he asked.

Emma shook her head. If she told him it was Oro then he would go to kill him right now and Exarp could die before they were able to save the world.

"Oh yeah, time travel, can't give too much away," he laughed a little but there were tears in his eyes.

"You knew you were going to die…" Emma muttered under her breath.

_"Wha-what? You put your Grace in here?" she asked. Exarp nodded weakly. "Wait, you knew you were going to die, didn't you? You knew you were!" she yelled angrily, though she let out a small sob at the realization._

"This is how you knew…" she said and stared into Exarp's blue eyes. "Exarp, you can't do that, you can't jump in front of that dagger, you can't die!" Emma yelled at him.

Exarp shook his head. "I can't do that. I can't let you die to save myself. I can't let anything bad happen to you. And I can't mess up time like that, you know that."

Emma nodded. She knew he wouldn't listen to reason. God damn stubborn Angel.

Exarp wiped the tears off her cheeks and smiled at her. "I'm sorry I'm not there to help you now. But if you have my Grace…," his hand traveled down to hold the crystal in his hand. "Then I'm with you no matter what."

Emma smiled, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him. She never got to do it that night and now was the last chance she could.

Then everything went white and Exarp disappeared.


	19. Take-In

Chapter 19

**Take-In**

They reappeared in front of a regular house in what looked like a cul-de-sac. Emma had now clue where they actually were in terms of state/country but that didn't actually bother her for once. She got the closure that she needed with Exarp. He died for _her_ and she had a feeling that in every other time line in existence he would always do that.

"Okay, what the hell just happened?" Lynn asked from her side. "Who was that?"

Emma felt her cheeks go red. "Oh, that was, uh, a friend?"

The three narrowed their eyes at her.

"Okay, he was an Angel who I had a thing with…" Though she couldn't think that it was a "thing". It felt so much more than a thing. But that was the best way she could explain it.

"An _Angel_?" Murdock repeated in awe. "You can…do that?"

Emma laughed a little, embarrassed, and shook her head. "He was a little different from most Angels."

"What were you two talking about before you started sucking face?" Lynn asked.

"Just some stuff that happened in the past," Emma said, not wanting to talk about it. She just wanted to close her eyes for a while and let the warmth of everything that had just happened take over her. She could still feel that ghost of the kiss on her lips and she didn't want it to go away.

"Not to interrupt this little interrogation but where the hell are we?" Drew asked, looking around. How many times were they going to have to ask that?

"Feels like…California," Lynn said, smelling the air. She was right; it was a tad bit too warm for the time. Fall was creeping closer but it felt like the middle of the summer where they were.

"Um, hello?" The four turned around to see someone poking their head out of the door of the house they were in front of. "Do you guys want something or are you just going to keep standing on my lawn?"

"Oh, uh," Emma started, unsure of what to say to the girl.

"We're lost," Drew said.

"You are?" The girl stepped out of the door fully. It was night time so it was kind of hard to see what she looked like. But from what Emma could tell the girl had long, curly pitch black hair and shining blue eyes. She seemed to be around their age. She looked a lot like Castiel but, you know, the girl version.

"Well if you need some directions I can help. Where are you headed?" The girl offered.

"Uh," the four looked at each other.

"Okay, we're not lost," Drew lied. "We're uh; we're running away from our homes. Shit went down and we don't feel like staying there."

Man, Drew was a good liar.

"Really? Rebels, I like it." The girl had a look of glee in her eyes as if she praised them on getting into trouble. "Well if you guys need a place to stay mi casa es su casa." She gestured through the door.

"Wow, thanks," Murdock said and started up the small steps and through the door, thanking the girl on his way in. The others did the same.

"So, you're not afraid that we might be crazy serial killers?" Lynn asked as they proceeded through the home. The first thing they saw was a hallway and on the right was a kitchen.

"Nah, honestly you guys don't look like the killing type." Boy was she wrong. "And we take in tourists all the time. My family; we're givers." She smiled and walked into the kitchen. "Introductions?"

"My name's Emma Crimson," Emma introduced herself first.

"Badass name," the girl smiled at her.

"Thanks."

"I'm Murdock Leroy, it's nice to meet you," he said.

"Nice to meet you too."

"Lynn Logan."

The girl nodded at her.

"Drew Copperfield."

"Well it's nice to meet all ya. I'm Courtney Snow and welcome to the Snow residence." Courtney nodded at all of them then headed towards the fridge. "You guys hungry?"

Now that she thought about it, Emma was hungry. They hadn't eaten all day.

"I'll take that as a yes," she said and took a large plate of lasagna out of the fridge and put it in the microwave. "Left overs okay?"

"Left overs are perfect, oh my God I'm so hungry," Murdock said, practically salivating over the lasagna heating up in the microwave.

Courtney laughed. "That's what you get for being runaways." After a few minutes the lasagna was heated up and they all took a seat at the nice looking breakfast bar and dug in. Courtney watched them as she stood at the other side of the breakfast bar.

"So what kind of shit made you run away?" she asked, eating some of the lasagna as well.

"We'd rather not talk about it," Lynn said, adding on to the lies. Emma stayed quiet as she ate; she kept thinking back to Exarp. It used to make her sad, well it still does, but it's starting to give her hope. Maybe they could beat Lucifer. Hope was something he didn't have.

"That's fine; everyone deals in their own way." Courtney said.

"Taking in strays again?" Emma turned around to see a boy that looked around Courtney's age walk into the kitchen. He had the same black hair and blue eyes as Courtney but was a few inches taller than her. He was also in what looked like his pajamas, a loose blue shirt and plaid pajama pants. What time was it?

Courtney rolled her eyes at him. "Shut up Simon."

Simon scoped up some of her lasagna with her fork and ate it, smiling. "Four? That's got to be a new record. We should call up Mom and Dad in Arizona and tell them that it's time to get a plaque."

"No, Mom's highest was eight in college," she then looked back over at the group and said, "Oh, sorry, this is my twin brother Simon but you can call him butt face."

"Very funny," Simon said sarcastically. "Nice to meet you."

Everyone nodded in response.

"Quiet bunch I see," Simon pointed out. "Names?"

"Lynn, Emma, Murdock, Drew," Courtney said, introducing them in the order they were sitting in.

"Anyways," Simon turned to Courtney, "I just came down to tell you to keep it down, Charlie's asleep upstairs."

"Charlie's our six year-old brother," Courtney told them as a little side note to the conversation. "And no problem."

"TOO LATE!" Emma turned around yet again to see who she guessed was Charlie. He was a cute little kid with _blonde _hair and blue eyes. He seemed to stand out among the Snow's.

"Charlie! It's 3 AM!" Was it really?

"Well, duh," the six year-old mocked and hopped over to his brother and sister.

"What are you doing up exactly?" Simon interrogated.

"I heard new voices and wanted to meet the new take-ins!" he explained excitedly. He kept jumping up and down so he could try to look at them over the breakfast bar because he was too small to see over it.

"That's what we call all the people we take in. Get it?" Courtney said as another side note. Emma was still laughing at Charlie bouncing up and down. Lucifer's locations just keep getting weirder and weirder.

"HI!" Charlie greeted.

"Hi there," Emma said, the others saying greetings too.

"Oh, so when the little kid says hi you guys talk," Simon said in fake anger. "What, am I not cute enough for you?"

Courtney smacked his arm. "Stop being so rude, butt face."

Charlie, fed up with jumping, ran around the breakfast bar and over to where they were sitting. He went over to where Emma was sitting and asked, "What's your name?"

Emma giggled a little before answering, "My name's Emma."

"I like your necklace!" he said, looking at the crystal holding Exarp's Grace.

"Thanks," she said, holding onto the crystal.

"Okay Charlie, enough with harassing the take-ins, it's time to go back to bed." Simon came around the breakfast bar and picked Charlie up who then proceed to whine and kick his feet around.

"But I don't wanna go back to bed! I'm not tired!" he argued but Simon just shook his head.

"Sorry buddy but it's way past your bed time and you need your rest." Charlie, seeing his defeat, stopped kicking but continued to pout.

"It was nice meeting you all, see you in the morning," he said before heading back upstairs with Charlie in his arms.

"My brothers are quite the characters, aren't they?" Courtney laughed while putting their finished plates in the sink. "Okay, follow me to where you'll be sleeping."

They all got up and followed Courtney upstairs and down the hall where two doors were. "This is my room," she pointed to the door on the right. "You ladies can sleep in my room while the guys can sleep in the guest bedroom right there," she pointed to the other door on the left. "There's only one bed in there so you two will have to fight over it." And with that Murdock and Drew started running into the room (well, Drew was hobbling but he still put up a good fight), pushing and shoving to the bed.

The girls laughed then went into Courtney's room. It only had one bed too but she quickly pulled out an air mattress for Emma and Lynn to share.

"Thanks, we really appreciate you doing this for us," Emma said as Courtney set up the air mattress.

"It's no problem at all," she said, putting a blanket and pillow down on the mattress. "We do this all the time."

"Who's this?" Lynn asked. She was snooping around of course and was looking at a cork board on the wall full of pictures of a girl in various locations. She was pretty with darker skin and long black hair.

"That's my girlfriend, Talia. She spent the summer in India with her extended family so she sent me a bunch of pictures," Courtney explained.

"Hey, I got here first! Fair and square!" the three turned to hear Drew yelling in the guest bed room.

"You totally cheated! You blasted me to the other side of the room!" Murdock argued back.

Lynn face palmed.

"Some friends you got there," Courtney said with a smile. "I'm gonna go brush my teeth before going to bed. This is like my normal bed time," she said then left the room.

"So are we still in the past?" Lynn asked, sitting down on the air mattress.

"I don't think so. Check the date on Courtney's clock." Emma pointed to the clock resting on Courtney's bedside table. It read September 15th, 2012.

"Well that's good. I'm not confused anymore." Lynn lay down on the mattress and yawned. Emma followed and lay down next to her.

"Should I even bother asking why Lucifer sent us here?" Emma asked.

Lynn shook her head. "Doesn't seem like we get an answer any time we ask it."

Emma nodded. "I just want to go home."

"Me too."

And after a few minutes the two fell asleep with only the distant arguing of Murdock and Drew in the next room filling their ears.


	20. Snow Day

Chapter 20

**Snow Day**

Emma awoke to a very excited Charlie bouncing up and down next to her on the inflatable mattress.

"IT'S SNOWING!" He yelled as loud as he possibly could. Emma raised a curious eyebrow at the child. It was September in California. How could it possibly be snowing?

Charlie smiled down at her then did a little jump over her then a jump over a now awake Lynn and over to Courtney's bed. He got up and started shaking her. "IT'S SNOWING AND THE TV SAID THAT SCHOOL'S CANCLED. WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP!"

"SHUT UP!" Courtney yelled back but then looked at her younger sibling curiously. "Wait, what?"

"The twerp's right." Emma shifted her view to see Simon standing in the doorway. "It's fucking snowing out."

The three girls all got up and ran straight to the window. And it was indeed snowing. There was at least five inches on the ground and it was still snowing. But how?

"This is weird," Courtney pointed out then turned to her brothers. "Did the news say anything about why it's snowing?"

Simon shook his head. "Nope, they just say it's a strange occurrence. Hell, I'm just gonna enjoy my first snow day."

Simon then left to go back to his room, followed by Charlie bouncing up and down excitedly some more. Murdock and Drew then appeared at the doorway sleepy and confused. "Did someone say snow?" Drew asked.

Lynn nodded. "It's a bit odd."

"You're telling me." Drew rubbed his eyes of sleep them elbowed Murdock. "You ever play in the snow?"

Murdock shook his head. "Nope," he sighed.

"Good, let's go then," he smiled and dragged Murdock downstairs.

Courtney seemed fully awake now and looked almost as excited as Charlie. "The last time I saw snow I was eight and in Colorado. This is amazing! I'm going to call Talia to see if she can come over and enjoy this strange happenstance." She then ran out of the room, cell phone in hand.

Lynn raised an eyebrow at Emma. "Seems a bit too weird, don't you think?"

"Why would Lucifer make it snow in California? It doesn't make sense," Emma told her, thinking it over. It didn't have any effect on anything other than weird climate changes. It didn't hurt them. It just made them confused. Didn't seem like the work of the Devil.

Lynn shrugged. "I think we need a snow day too."

Emma laughed and said, "Definitely."

They all went downstairs, Courtney happy that her girlfriend could come over, and had chocolate chip pancakes courtesy of Simon. Afterwards Courtney let them borrow some jackets and hats which she said her parents had just in case they decided to go to Colorado again. Then they got outside.

"THIS IS SO COOL," both Charlie and Murdock yelled while quickly getting down to roll in the fluff of snow.

"THIS IS SO COLD," Murdock yelled five seconds later and huddled over next to Lynn. Charlie seemed unfazed.

"That's what you get for living in Florida," Lynn smiled at him.

"Hey guys!" Emma looked over to see a girl, who she guessed was Talia, run over to them.

"There's my favorite girl!" Simon said and picked up Talia, spinning her around while she laughed.

"As much as I like you Simon, I am unfortunately a lesbian," Talia said once Simon put her down.

"Unfortunately? If you weren't lesbo then you wouldn't have an awesome girlfriend like me," Courtney said and hugged her.

"That is very true, sorry Simon, find your own lesbian." Simon frowned then dramatically fell into a pile of snow.

"Life is hard when you're straight," he sighed and groaned when Charlie jumped on top of him. "Ow!"

"SNOWBALL FIGHT!" the six year-old yelled and launched a snowball right at the back of his head.

"Okay, it is ON," the sixteen year-old yelled, turned around and grabbed Charlie, picking him up as he stood up.

Everyone laughed as Simon ran around with Charlie in his arms. "So who are these guys?" Talia asked, looking at them. "Take-Ins?"

"You guessed correctly my dear. And for that you win the grand prize of a kiss from me." Talia received the grand prize then Courtney turned back to them and introduced them.

"It's nice to meet you all," Talia said with a smile but then looked horrified when Simon threw a snowball at her. "You will pay for that!" she yelled and started running after the two Snow's, Courtney trailing behind.

"Ow!" Emma turned around to see that Murdock had thrown a snowball at Drew face pointblank. "Can we have a rule about not hitting the face? This is the money maker!" Drew said, pointing at his now red face.

"The money maker? Really?" Lynn laughed at him.

Drew growled, scooped up some snow, and not even packing it together threw it at Lynn. Lynn just laughed. "That was pathetic!" And with that she makes a fairly decent snow ball and ran after Drew. It was only Murdock and Emma left now.

"No."

"Yes." Murdock smiled mischievously.

"No."

Murdock started to scoop up some snow. Emma made a run for it.

That was how the rest of the day went. Snowball fights, snowmen, snow angels (get it?), and a ton of other snow things. It was weird how happy everyone was. Emma hadn't had fun like that in what seemed like ages. She would have to make it snow when they got back to the safe house so they could do that again.

When they went back inside it was late and they were all freezing. Simon had decided to walk to the small convenience store down the road to buy some hot chocolate and other stuff. Courtney and Talia were in the living room watching some movie called _Love, Actually_ and Lynn, Murdock, and Drew decided to crash their party and what with them. That left Emma and Charlie together.

Charlie was sat at the kitchen table playing with some action figures. He seemed to be enjoying himself, humming to some unknown tune. Until he suddenly turned to his left and said, "Wanna play too?" No one was sitting next to him.

"Who you talking to, Charlie?" Emma decided to ask as she sat down across from him at the table.

"His names Ben!" he smiled. "He's my friend."

Oh, Emma got it now. Ben was Charlie's imaginary friend. After years of hunting ghosts it wasn't a surprise that imaginary friend wasn't the first thing to pop into Emma's head.

"What does Ben look like?" she asked.

"Um, he has brown hair and brown eyes and is my age and a lot of fun!" Charlie explained then turned back to Ben. "Ben, this is Emma," he introduced.

"Hi Ben," Emma greeted, waving at the empty chair, only feeling a little silly.

Charlie was quiet for a few moments, as if listening, then said, "Ben says that you have the same name as his sister."

Emma raised an eyebrow curiously. "Do you talk to his sister too?" she asked Charlie.

The boy shook his head. "Ben says he hasn't seen his sister since the accident."

"The accident?" Man, Charlie had one wild imagination.

Charlie was quiet again until he turned back to her and explained, "He says he doesn't want to talk about it."

"That's okay," Emma said but couldn't help be curious about what Charlie was thinking.

"Okay, who wants some extra marshmallow-y hot chocolate?" Emma turned around to see Simon walk in with two bags. Everyone came running in.

After they had some hot chocolate they all decided to watch a movie together. After some disputing they decided to watch the first _X-Men_ movie.

After the movie ended they were all tired. Talia went home after saying good bye to everyone. She was really nice. Then they all went back upstairs to go to bed.

"Can I sleep with you tonight?" Charlie asked Emma when they got upstairs.

"Charlie I don't think-," Courtney started but Emma cut her off.

"No, it's fine," she smiled and Charlie bounced happily.

They all got situated on the air mattress and Charlie snugged up next to Emma. He fell asleep almost instantly, his hand clutching the crystal that held Exarp's grace. Just as she started to fall asleep she saw the crystal glowing strangely…

Emma was now in a beautiful garden. It was small but healthy with colorful flowers and a bright sunshine. There was a lone white bench resting in the middle of the garden. Emma knew she was dreaming. But what of?

That's when she saw two figures appear out of nowhere and onto the bench. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw that one of them was Exarp. She then recognized the other one as Brap, Exarp's best friend and Drew's father.

"You know, I had been thinking a lot about what you said," Exarp started, looking off into the distance but not see Emma at all. Maybe this wasn't a dream but a memory.

Brap glanced at him. "I say a lot of things; you're going to have to be more specific."

Exarp laughed a little then clarified, "When you were talking about why you had Drew. Leaving something on this Earth that was meant to be left…a human being."

Brap stiffed a little but kept on listening. Emma wondered where the conversation was going.

"I decided that I want that too." Emma's jaw dropped. Did that meant what she thought that meant?

"What?" Brap seemed just as surprised as her. He turned around on the bench so he was looking his friend directly in the eye. "You-You-,"

"Don't worry, I didn't sleep with anyone like you did," Exarp explained. "I blessed a woman with my child."

Are. You. Fucking. Kidding. Exarp…had a kid? He didn't even tell her!

Brap looked at him for a few more seconds before leaning back against the bench again. "You know it's okay to have a little fun once in a while," he smiled cheekily.

Exarp elbowed him. "I didn't want that."

Brap was silent after he let out a deep breath. "When did you do it?"

"She had the child today," Exarp said with a small smile.

Brap's blue eyes widened. "What is it? I mean, is it a boy or girl?"

"It's a boy. His name is Charlie Snow."

No, it couldn't be. Charlie was Exarp's _son_? That couldn't be possible…it…it made sense. Why Charlie had blonde hair while all the other Snow's had black. Why he had taken an interested in the crystal that held Exarp's grace. He had the same smile Exarp had…

The memory disappeared and Emma was left thinking. This was why Lucifer brought them here.

And that meant something bad was going to happen.

A/N: Fun face: My cousin called his face the money maker once. We never let him live it down.


	21. We Didn't Start the Fire

A/N: I would just like to say a quick thank you to everyone who had reviewed because this fic now has over 100 reviews! Woot! Thank you guys so much, you rock :) Anyways, hope you enjoy that chapter!

Chapter 21

**We Didn't Start the Fire**

Emma woke up to see the dawn light seeping through the curtains of Courtney's room. It was surprisingly calming with everyone asleep. Charlie was breathing against her stomach, nuzzling against her. It was weird because now she could separate Charlie's traits as either Exarp or Snow. He certainly had the bubbly personality of the Snow's. But he definitely had Exarp's smile and of course the blonde hair. He also could be quiet at times, like how he didn't make a peep during the movie last night, just like Exarp.

She took a deep breath. This was a lot to take in. Emma didn't blame Exarp for not telling her, hell she didn't even know him for that long. And it seemed that he kept Charlie a secret from the other Angels as well, besides for Brap.

Emma didn't know what to do now though. The gravity of the situation was more towards the Snow's family life because their brother was only their half-brother and they didn't know it. Charlie didn't know it. Their parents didn't know it. Should she tell them and get Charlie somewhere safe, somewhere no one could hurt him?

Emma shook her head. She couldn't separate Charlie from his family. They were all so close, it would tear them apart.

"Hey, you awake?" Emma looked over to see Lynn next to her on the air mattress, her green orbs shining in the dull light.

She nodded. "I think we need a team meeting," Emma whispered to her.

"About what?"

"I'll explain everything later." And right then a loud beeping noise started which Emma assumed was Courtney's alarm clock.

Charlie jumped at the noise, practically banging his head against Emma's stomach. Courtney groaned and lazily shut off the alarm.

"School?" Lynn asked. Courtney nodded and sighed.

About an hour later the gang was standing in the kitchen, the Snow's just about to head to school.

"Listen, we trust you enough to leave you guys alone in our home, but please don't burn the house down or anything," Simon said. Emma wasn't sure if he was serious or not.

"Trust us, we'll be fine," Lynn said with a smile.

"Bye guys!" Charlie waved as they walked out the door. They all waved back.

"Okay, team meeting." Emma ushered everyone around the breakfast bar. She was nervous, how was she supposed to explain that Charlie was a Nephilim?

"What's it about?" Murdock asked, munching on a banana.

"It's about Charlie," Emma announced bravely.

"What about him?" Drew asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I-I had this dream last night. Well, it wasn't much of a dream as it was a memory. Not my memory but Exarp's."

"You mean the guy you were making out with a few days ago?" Lynn asked, nudging her jokingly.

Emma's cheeks turned beat red. "Uh, yeah. Anyway in the memory I saw Exarp talking with Brap," Emma saw Drew's eyes widen a bit. "And he said that…Charlie was his son."

There was a collective "WHAT?!" that echoed throughout the kitchen.

"He's not-He's not yours right?" Lynn asked her, eyes wide.

"What? NO! First off all that would mean that I was ten when I had him, oh never mind!" Emma said embarrassingly. "Exarp blessed their Mom with Charlie."

"Why?" Drew asked.

Emma shrugged. "For some profound reason."

"So that would make Charlie a Nephilim, right?" Murdock asked through all the banana in his mouth.

"Yup, it also means that something could be coming for him. Let's just say that most things aren't very kind towards Nephilim," Lynn said. Emma looked over at Drew, remembering the story of what happened to his leg.

"He's probably the one who made it snow yesterday too. I remember I used to do that when I was younger," Lynn continued. Everyone nodded in agreement.

"So, what do we do? It's not like we can take him from his family," Drew pointed out, adjusting his hold on his cane.

"What we should do for now is make sure he's safe," Emma decided. "If we give him and the house the right protection then it should keep him safe until we get back from this hell trip and figure out what to do then."

So that's what they did. They were able to find some spray paint in the basement so they placed Devils Traps under the rugs of the front door and the back door. They put sigils to ward off Angels in hidden places so the Snow's wouldn't see. And let's not forget about the salt everywhere. Hopefully they wouldn't notice. They probably will, which meant that they would have to explain what was really going on. Emma wasn't looking forward to that conversation.

After they were all done they sat down at the table. There wasn't much more they could do now except for wait until the Snow's came home. Emma had a weird feeling in her stomach though, the feeling that something bad was about to happen.

"Hey, Emma." She snapped out of her paranoid thoughts to look over at Lynn.

"Yeah?" she answered.

"Well, back when we had that little blast from the past, you told us that you used to be that girl, Megan right? We were wondering if you could explain that to us a bit more. I mean, we have time to kill anyway."

Emma looked over at Murdock and Drew who were looking at her with expectant eyes, waiting for her to share her story.

It was weird because now she actually felt like telling them what happened, to tell them about her old self. She was so reluctant to before, like if she told them they would see her as something different. As two halves of the wrong person put together. But now it felt different…like it was a story worth telling. These were her friends now and they deserved to hear it.

So she told them everything from the beginning. How she used to be Megan. How she discovered that she was the Chosen One. How she met the Winchesters. How Castiel was her protector. How she shoved Raphael into the cage. How she defeated Libra at the cost of losing Exarp and herself. How the Tablets changed her so she could keep on living.

"Wow, that…sucks," Murdock said after the pause of her ending the story.

"Yeah, it does," Emma said, shaking her head. "But that's all in the past now, right?"

Everyone nodded. "Thanks for telling us though. It means a lot that you trust us," Lynn smiled. Emma smiled back.

"_You can never outrun the past_." Oh no. No no no no no no no. It can't be; not here, not now!

"Shadows!" Drew exclaimed as everyone shot out of their chairs, looking around franticly.

"Mirrors! We need mirrors!" Murdock instructed. Ugh, why didn't they think of getting mirrors before!

"_The Guardian of the Dead will die and be among his kept._" What the hell did that mean? Who's the Guardian of the Dead?

"Don't listen to them!" Lynn said, shouting in her ear. Emma didn't realize how zoned out she was in her own thoughts. She quickly shook her head and looked over at everyone.

"Okay, we need to stay together but we need to find some mirrors." Emma looked around, trying to find the closest mirror. There was a small one in the hallway and she knew there was one in the bathroom to their left.

She quickly ran over to the mirror in the hallway next to her. It was small but it was enough to get rid of those sons of bitches.

Emma turned around to see that Murdock had taken the mirror from the bathroom and was huddled in front of Lynn and Drew, trying to protect them.

But where were the Shadows? They didn't seem to be there but they could hear them.

"_You won't be able to defeat us, children_," the Shadow's hissed. Where the fuck were they?!

"Yes we will!" Emma shot back.

"_Liar, liar_," There was a pause and Emma started to smell smoke, "_pants on fire_." The Shadow's laughed and suddenly the kitchen went up in a blaze.

"RUN!" Murdock yelled and started sprinting for the front door. Everyone followed.

"Ow!" Emma yelled as a searing pain started in her arm. She turned to see a long, claw like scratch on the side of her arm. She looked up to see a Shadow, its dark fingers dripping scarlet blood. Emma ran.

Thankfully the front door wasn't too far away from the kitchen or else the smoke would've started suffocating them. They stopped in the middle of the front yard and looked as the house started going up in flames.

"Help!" Emma looked over to see Lynn standing right in front of the door, not moving.

"What are you doing?! Come on!" Emma yelled at her.

"I can't! I'm stuck in the stupid Devil's Trap!" Lynn glared down at the rug she was standing on then looked behind her as Shadow's crept towards her faster and faster. "Hurry and get my out of this thing!"

"I got it," Murdock said and raced past her and towards Lynn.

Emma's sight of the two started to get more distorted as more smoke started to arise. But she could still see Murdock lifting up the rug to scratch out the trap with a knife. At first Murdock looked successful until Emma saw a sharp, black hand sticking straight out of Lynn's stomach.

"NO!" Emma called out. She had no idea if Shadow's could kill a Hybrid or a Warlock or Nephilim. But the look on Lynn's face just screamed pain.

Murdock was furious. She could tell by his balled up fists and his heavy breathing. And was he…glowing? No, there were tiny sparks of purple lightning erupting from his body. He was very angry.

All of a sudden there was a flash of purple, aimed right at the Shadow's. Emma didn't think that it would kill them, Murdock probably knew that too, but it could slow them down. That's what they needed.

That's when Emma realized that she forgot how powerful Murdock actually was. Back in Chicago he had told her that he was the highest level of Warlock there was. And he was the Heir of freaking Merlin. He was almost unstoppable.

A few seconds later Murdock came back over to them, holding Lynn bridal style.

"Is she…," Drew said, looking at the bloody hole in Lynn's stomach. It reminded Emma of what the Shadow's did to Connor. She hoped to God that it wouldn't do that same to Lynn.

"No." Murdock's tone was serious, as serious as she's ever heard it before. "She has a pulse. But-But I don't know if she'll survive. The Shadow's must have some sort of effect on people like us. Enough of an effect to hurt us."

They were all silent after that. What could they do? The house was on fire, Lynn was dying, the Shadows still weren't dead; all they could do was stand in stunned silence.

Even though they were out in the cool air, Emma was finding it hard to breathe. It wasn't the smoke that gently darkened the snow, it was the feeling of dread as she stared at Lynn, his emerald eyes unable to reflect the blaze of the fire, her blood dripping and dotting the snow red.

She wasn't going to die. Emma wouldn't let her.

"What the fuck?!" Everyone spun around to see the Snow's walking towards them. They must walk to school. They were staring at their house that was slowly burning to the ground and their new found friends huddled around Lynn who had a hole in her stomach.

"You guys _literally_ burned the house down! You know that's just an expression!" Simon exclaimed, running a hair through his pitch black hair. Even in shock he was still able to produce wit.

Little Charlie was crying. It made Emma want to cry to. Because this was it, it was all over for the Snow's now. There was no turning back from this fate of darkness and destruction brought upon them by an Angel who had good intentions. And Emma was going to save them too.

Until the white light engulfed them again.


	22. Someday

Chapter 22

**Someday**

They reappeared in what looked like a foyer of a huge mansion. They were standing on white tile, which was slowly being dotted red from the blood dripping out of Lynn. Behind them was a large staircase and in front of them were huge double doors with golden door knobs.

Murdock, who was holding Lynn still, stood there frozen. He looked scared to death.

"Murdock, man are you okay?" Drew asked his friend.

"This is….this is my mansion," he barely got out.

"You mean that mansion you were trapped in for most of your life?" Emma asked. That's probably why he looked traumatized.

He nodded his head slightly, his grey eyes lost in thought.

"Murdock!" Emma yelled to get his attention. They needed to heal Lynn and _fast_ or she was going to die.

"Oh, yeah, right, sorry," Murdock said as he came to. But then he looked like he was thinking again. Jesus, you stupid Warlock, GET IT TOGETHER.

"You know, it might not be a bad thing that we're here. I have a lot of magical items that could help us, come this way," Murdock said and led them into what looked like a living room.

"Drew," Murdock called, rushed, "Lift up the head of that statue and press the button."

"Wait…what?" Drew looked confused, almost as if he didn't believe Murdock that there was a hidden button under the bust of what looked like a cult leader. Which it probably was. Or maybe it was Merlin. Who the fuck knew.

"Just do it! We don't have time!" He looked panicked now, looking down at Lynn, watching as her chest starts to rise and fall slighter and slighter.

Drew finally cooperated and looked surprised to see a big red button under the head of the bust. He pushed it.

What happened next was something that looked like it came straight out of a movie. Two book shelves started to move apart, a few books dropping to the ground in the process, to reveal a secret passageway.

"Holy Bat Cave, Batman," Emma whispered as she watched Murdock start to run into the tunnel. Emma and Drew followed.

They started fast walking down a long staircase. It was the only thing Emma could make out in the pitch blackness of the cave. Was it even a cave? For all she knew it could've just been a room.

Then Murdock stopped suddenly, making Emma almost bump into him. Unfortunately Drew bumped into her. "Sorry," he whispered faintly.

Murdock muttered something she couldn't hear or understand and the door magically few open to revel…a bigger library. Did they just go through a library just to get to a bigger, more secret library? Emma would never understand Warlocks.

"Come on, all my stuff's this way," Murdock said and lead them over towards a long table in front of a huge lit fireplace.

"What the hell…" Drew said, looking up at the lard book cases and glass cases that looked like they were displaying medieval items.

"It's the cult's secret library. They don't use it anymore but I still do to experiment with potions and spells." Murdock looked over at Emma. "Can you move a bunch of this stuff?" He gestured towards a part of the table that was cluttered with notes and pages of books. Emma nodded and quickly moved the things. Murdock set Lynn down on the table.

She looked horribly pale, like a ghost, and she was barely breathing. Just looking at her laying there, slowly dying…it was hard for Emma not to cry. She had finally made a friend out of Lynn, finally learned to trust her, she couldn't let all that go away now.

"That's weird…where was that potion I had been working on?" Murdock looked around, puzzled.

"MURDOCK!" Drew and Emma yelled.

"Oh yeah, sorry, sorry," he quickly looked around and scrambled through pages and vials and boxes, looking frantically for something.

"Where is it!?" he yelled punching the table with his fist. Then, as if realizing something, he ran over to one of the glass cases. He picked up a book and smashed the glass, sending shards everywhere; it even looked like one cut his face. But Murdock didn't seem to care; he just picked up what looked like a part of a fancy mirror and ran back over to Lynn.

"What's that?" Emma asked.

"Do you remember that mirror from _Snow White_? This is a part of it," Murdock said then turned his attention back to Lynn.

"I so hope this works," he said and held the mirror over her so that it reflected back her wound.

"Mirror mirror on the wall, save the fairest of them all," he whispered breathily and waited. Emma held her breath, the empty silence killing her. The only thing she could do was…pray. She hadn't prayed in a while but now seemed like a good time to do it.

Then it started working. Black particles started to rise up from out of her wound and go into the mirror. In a few seconds the hole in her chest was completely gone.

Emma flinched a little when Lynn shot straight up, taking in a large breath. She started panting and was looking around, confused. She then looked over at Murdock with a sort of glint in her eye.

"Did you just call me the fairest of them all?"

Murdock's cheeks flushed red and he averted eye contact. "Uh, maybe, it was just, you know-," he stuttered nervously.

"Come here Prince Charming." Lynn smiled, grabbed Murdock by the collar of his shirt, and kissed him.

Emma and Drew's eyes widened a bit as they watched Lynn and Murdock kiss. Well, it wasn't as if she didn't see it coming. Those two had been making googly eyes at each other practically since they met. But it was obvious that Murdock had no idea what he was doing. He kept moving his hands around, as if trying to figure out where to put them, and he didn't really start kissing back until moments later. It was kind of funny.

"Thanks for saving me," she said after they pulled apart.

"N-No problem," Murdock laughed nervously but smiling like crazy.

"You guys done?" Drew eyed them.

"Yup," Lynn said and let go of his shirt, jumping off the table. "So, where are we?"

"My mansion," Murdock answered, his smile now replaced with a frown.

"Oh, awesome," Lynn said sarcastically.

"Is there someone down here?" Everyone looked over towards the door they came in when they heard the voice of a little boy.

"What? Is someone here?" Emma whispered.

"That's impossible," Murdock said, staring at the doorway with fear. "We need to hide."

The four quickly ran over to one of the large display cases and hid behind it. They crouched down but were still able to see things through the glass.

That's when they saw a little boy, probably around eight years old, walk into the library. He was looking around nervously. He looked a lot like Murdock, same grey eyes, same hair, and his large black rimmed glasses kept sliding down his nose.

"Murdock…," Emma looked over at the Warlock. "Is that-,"

"Me? Yeah," he said, swallowing hard. "That's eight year old me."

"What?" Lynn exclaimed a little loudly. Luckily little Murdock, who had given up his search, didn't hear her.

"Lucifer must've sent us back in time again," Drew suggested.

"Hey, what's little you doing?" Lynn asked, looking through the display case glass. Little Murdock seemed to have gone over to the table, a little confused as to how all his papers were on the ground and why the mirror was out of the display case. But he quickly seemed to brush it off, as if he had more important matters to attend to. He ran over to the fire place and took a crystal ball off the mantel above it.

He took a seat down at the table, holding the crystal ball up with both hands, looking intently into it.

"Can you show me them today?" he asked the ball.

That's when the crystal ball sudden started to show an image and little Murdock perked up, looking at it excitedly.

Emma's eyes widened when she saw what appeared in the ball. It was…her. Well, it was seven year old Megan to be exact. She was in her old backyard with her brother and her cousin, playing baseball. Emma looked over at Murdock, wondering what the hell was going on, but Murdock wouldn't look at her.

Then the image changed to what looked like a young Lynn. She was looking out the window while other kids her age were singing "Rain, rain, go away, come back another day." Then the rain stopped and Lynn wondered if it was her own doing.

Then image then changed again to what was probably a young Drew. He was outside playing soccer with his friends, back when he still had the use of his leg.

When the crystal ball showed now more images, little Murdock put it back at its place on the mantel and ran back upstairs.

The four then emerged from behind the display case and looked at Murdock suspiciously. Why had he been watching us?

"Listen, I have a perfectly good and not creepy explanation for this," he started, putting his hands up in defense.

"Well, spill," Lynn ordered.

"Okay, so before my parents…you know, they gave me that crystal ball. They told me that one day I would be really important and meet the people I would see in the crystal ball. That I would become really good friends with them." Murdock looked down at his feet, a little embarrassed. "And growing up alone was hard, but seeing you guys every now and then gave me hope that one day I would get out of this dreadful mansion and have friends like you guys did. I only saw bits and pieces of your lives, the crystal would only show me certain things at certain times, that's why I was so surprised to find out that you were The Chosen One, Emma. And why I had to act surprised when you told us that you used to be Megan."

Emma nodded at him, letting him know it was okay.

"I'm sorry if that kind of creeps you guys out but you have to understand, I was completely alone." His voice started to waver a little and his eyes were filling up with tears. "And seeing you guys so happy and knowing that one day you guys would laugh like that around me was…was more than I ever needed to keep me going."

Lynn was the first one to run up and hug him. It almost looked like she was crying too. Hell, Emma was on the verge of tears. She looked over at Drew, grabbed his arm and ran them both into the hug.

It was weird to think how they all started off as strangers. Because Emma was wondering how she was ever able to live without them.

And then everything went white again.


	23. Time Warp

A/N: Sorry for not updating in a while, I've been busy with school and the usual lack of inspiration. Anyways I hope you guys enjoy the chapter!

**Beta Read by Arlena4815162342** (fyi she's beta'd like almost all of my chapters I just always forget to put that she did. Oh well haha, thank you Arlena for beta'ing!)

Chapter 23

**Time Warp**

"You're late."

The room smelled of blood, the usual tangy metallic smell that Castiel had smelled too often. It stung at all his senses and made him grip the jar in his hand harder. If he dropped it he would be in an awful lot of trouble.

"I'm sorry," Castiel said as he stopped next to the table in the middle of the room. "I was having a bit of an argument with Dean."

Crowley smiled his stupid smug Demon smile. "What, you two have a bit of a domestic?"

"I got the last thing we need," Castiel said, changing the subject. He put the jar on the table.

"Oh, the blood, great, good," Crowley said, taking the jar into his hands, examining it. "Now we just have to wait until tonight."

Castiel sighed. As much as he wanted to do this he couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt. He was betraying his friends and working with a lowlife Demon who kidnapped the one person he swore to protect a few years ago. But it had to be done. He couldn't let Lucifer win.

"So, shall we go over the game plan again, step by step? You know, just to make sure we know all of the plays before tonight," Crowley suggested, putting the jar back down on the table next to the piece of paper with the spell written on it.

Castiel swallowed back his guilt. "Balthazar will have made preparations to bring the kids back in just a few hours. Which means Lucifer will take the advantage to show up and explain his big plan in front of Emma-,"

"Emma, you know I'll never get used to that?" Crowley interrupted. "Emma Crimson, it's nice don't get me wrong, but it just doesn't pack the same punch. Although I can't wait to see her new makeover."

Castiel rolled his eyes. "Once everyone returns I'll bring them here saying that I've found a lead on Lucifer. Wherever Emma is Lucifer will follow. Then when he shows up we will start the spell and if all goes according to plan I will take the souls of purgatory and use their power to destroy Lucifer."

"Exactly," Crowley smiled. "And once that sorry excuse for a devil is dead I will take over Hell as its new King. King of Hell. Now that packs some punch."

Castiel sat down on one of the nearby stools. The guilt was back. Of course there was no use swallowing it down. It always came back up again. Guilt was like a plague, once you think it's cured it infects you again. He couldn't help but think of an old saying, "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions." Was that what he was doing? Lining his own destruction with good intentions?

"What's wrong my fine feathered friend?" Crowley looked over at him, eyebrows raised. "Having second thoughts? Because if you are then let's just say I murder when I'm angry."

"No, it's just," Castiel couldn't believe he was going to share his feelings with a petty Demon like Crowley. Though he wasn't sure he had the right to call them feelings. Angels didn't have any. They followed orders nothing more. But Castiel was a rebel now. And he was going to kill Lucifer without the help of his Garrison or any other Angels for that matter.

"Just what?"

"I'm not a big fan of lying." That pretty much summed up exactly what he was feeling.

"You're not lying, Castiel. You're just…bending the truth," Crowley said. "There is one thing I've been wondering."

Castiel looked over at the Demon. "What's that?"

"Why? Why are you doing this?"

Castiel stared at him for a second, puzzled. "To kill Lucifer. We've been over this."

"Well I get that," Crowley replied almost angrily but soon gained back his cool composure. "But there's always something more with you. I can tell you want to kill Lucifer for a reason other than saving the world. What is it?"

Castiel stared at the floor. Crowley was right. "If you must know it's…I want to kill him before Emma tries to."

"Because…," Crowley motioned for him to continue.

"Because recently I haven't been that great of a protector. I let her _die _back at Libra's and I couldn't save her. Someone else did that for me. And now the Megan I knew and was supposed to protect is gone. But with Emma I have a second chance to be better to her. I'm not going to let her face Lucifer, not after the mind games he's played on her before. I'm going to kill him, save her, and that will be it. I will be redeemed."

"Oh, so this is about redemption," Crowley seemed almost pleased. "How _heroic _of you."

"I hope this doesn't change our agreement," Castiel said, standing up from his seat on the stool.

"Of course not, I was just curious." Crowley patted Castiel on the back. It made the Angel feel slightly uncomfortable.

"I should leave now," Castiel said.

"Yes, you should. Don't want to miss the start of the grand finale," Crowley said, stepping away to examine the jar of blood again. "See you soon."

Castiel nodded and, with the still growing guilt in his chest, flew away.

-BNW-

"That should do it," Balthazar concluded, closing the hood of the Impala with a thud.

"You think that stupid crystal is actually going to work?" Jinx asked, inspecting the car.

"Of course, it's a weapon from Heaven. Why wouldn't it work?" Balthazar gave her a look before wrapping his arm around her.

"Yeah, I guess you're right stupid face," Jinx insulted playfully.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING TO MY CAR," Dean yelled, stepping out of the safe house just in time to see the two fucking with his car.

Sam and Luna quickly followed after him, curious to see what was happening.

"I was just making a few adjustments, no need to get all work up," Balthazar said. Although he couldn't say that he didn't enjoy watching Dean get all angry.

"What kind of adjustments?" Dean fumed.

Balthazar sighed and lifted the hood up again. "That," he pointed at a small crystal he hooked up to the engine. It was blue and shinned with a weird Heavenly light…which was probably because it was made in Heaven.

"What is it?" Dean interrogated.

"Is that what I think it is?" Luna asked, moving closer to the car to inspect the crystal.

"Most likely," Balthazar started, "It's The Crystal Tempus."

"Isn't that time in Latin?" Sam pointed out, moving with Luna to look at the crystal.

"Yes, four for you Sammy," Balthazar smiled. "It was a part of the arsenal I stole from Heaven. And it's what we're going to use to find our four little helpers."

"Okay, what the hell does it do," Dean asked, crossing his arms in frustration. Why did he have to use _his _car?

"Well, with the help of our fantastic Miss Luna here, we've discovered that our kiddos aren't in this time period anymore. We've searched the world but there is no trace of them. That means that Lucifer sent them back in time," Balthazar explained. "And as you know we Angels can travel back in time but it takes up a lot of our power and we have no idea where the hell they are. So what this crystal does is lock on to a target and travels anywhere in time to find it."

Dean raised an eyebrow. "You built a time machine…out of my Impala?"

"Yes, I did," Balthazar smiled.

"And thus our prophecy is fulfilled," Jinx added. "Remember how everyone got that quote thing in that cave? Ours was: _You built a time machine…out of a Delorean? _So that makes a lot more sense now."

"But other than that you didn't fuck up my car in anyway?" Dean asked.

Everyone rolled their eyes at him. "No, I didn't," Balthazar clarified.

"Okay, so how do we lock the target onto the kids?" Sam asked, still looking under the hood.

"It's already locked on to Emma, assuming the others are still with her then the crystal will take you to where they are," Balthazar explained.

"I can't even begin to explain how against the rules this is," Luna stated, glaring at Balthazar.

"Need I remind you that you went against your Garrison and worked for an evil Goddess?" Balthazar shot back. Luna didn't say anything.

"How did you get it to lock on to Emma?" Sam asked.

"Easy, the crystal uses aura to lock on to people so I just let it shine in Emma's room for a bit and it picked her up. So whenever you're ready to go you can go."

"Who's coming with?" Dean asked, looking at the group. He was still wondering where Cas was and what the hell he was doing. Their last argument didn't really go well and he was starting to get worried.

"The crystal can only travel two people to the location. I suggest that you and Sam go along," Balthazar said.

Sam and Dean nodded at each other. "Sammy, go get some weapons and put them in a duffel bag. Don't know what we'll be up against when we get there."

Sam quickly went back into the safe house. "Balthazar…do you have any idea where Cas is? Or what he's up to?"

Balthazar sighed. "Unfortunately, I do not know anything. But I do remember the last time he was all sneaky it was to build this place so I don't think you have a need to worry."

Dean shrugged. "I don't know, something's not right about all this."

"We'll talk to him when or if he comes back," Luna said, closing the hood of the Impala. "He is our brother; therefore we will look after him."

"Thanks," Dean said.

"Okay, all set," Sam said coming back with a duffel and throwing it in the trunk. "You ready?"

"As I'll ever be, Doc," Dean smiled and got into the driver's seat while Sam took the passengers.

"Wait!" Sam said, lowering the window so he could talk to Balthazar. "How are we supposed to get back?"

"No need to worry about that, Sasquatch. I've already…programmed, you could say, the crystal into bringing you back here after you pick everyone up. All you have to do rev the engine three times and it will bring you back."

"Thanks," Sam said. "You guys be careful."

They all nodded as Sam closed the window. "You really think this will work?" he asked, looking over at Dean.

"It better. Now, I'm guessing to leave here I'll have to rev the engine three times, right?" Dean asked, looking over at Sam.

"I guess," Sam shrugged.

"Okay, we'll here goes nothing," Dean said and revved the engine three times. Suddenly everything around them started to warp away and a large flash a light blinded the two as they went back to the past.


End file.
